


Everyone but Zhang Yixing has got that Power

by xiutty



Category: EXO, EXO (Band)
Genre: Life doesn't suck until you meet Byun Baekhyun, M/M, MAMA Era Powers (EXO), Mystery, Rom-com, Sci-Fi, Yixing gets kidnapped and forced to save the universe with eight idiots, powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 54
Words: 361,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22976083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiutty/pseuds/xiutty
Summary: Zhang Yixing only wanted to stay a night away from home. Instead, he got kidnapped, sent to space, eight galactic (and incredibly dense) teenagers, a mission, and a whole lot of 'no homo'...
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Park Chanyeol, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin, Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun, Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay
Comments: 387
Kudos: 284





	1. Moldy Plants and Bad Google Reviews

**Author's Note:**

> Practicality and desire confront Zhang Yixing with contradictions and mandatory choices. Though he has always favored the former, his logic-based brain harmonizes the two, which has brought an almost systematic ease to his nineteen years. However, the concepts quickly become enemies once he is abducted by a universe-saving galactic gang. The definition of 'practical' is challenged with things Yixing shouldn't have to do, and desire only exacerbates the paradox when he starts to want things that go against practicality.
> 
> All of Yixing's securities (logic, reality, utility, toilets that don't float) are stripped away one by one as he is forced into accepting impossibility. Left defenseless, he must adopt different methods to cope. The psychological battle becomes more difficult than it should be when the drama of eight college-aged guys and rather suspicious acting technology is brought into play.
> 
> POWER is where horrifying sci-fi meets lighthearted rom-com, intersecting somewhere that reality is ridiculed and Yixing suffers at the hands of not only everything and everyone there, but also himself.
> 
> ━━━━━━
> 
> Hi! 
> 
> So I have always loved EXO's power and decided to write a story. You'll see a lot of EXO lore/mv references as they were a big part of my inspiration and I wanted to bring them to life. It's 100% finished so you don't have to worry about any discontinuing or anything. There will be updates every Friday. Thank you so much for checking this out, I hope you like it! <3 :D

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing has had enough of his mother. He's going to spend a night out of the house.

**"WELL YOU** know what?! I don't like being here either!" Nineteen-year-old Yixing's final words slip into the Zhang household just before an angry woman slams the door, leaving the more than vexed teen standing out in the rain like a homeless person.

Well, not _like_ a homeless person. _A_ homeless person; because he is now exiled for at least the next twenty-four hours until the crone of his mother reluctantly lets him back in the house.

As an almost-graduated individual living smack-dab in the heart of Korea, Yixing was expected to have his whole future planned out, juggling scholarships and job offers like it was nothing. But that's just not him. Yixing happens to reside in the _only-learns-what-he-wants_ part of the student population.

But no, he's not stupid.

Maybe a bit aloof, but Yixing was one of the brightest students. He's nothing short of creative and is easily the most organized. He simply just didn't apply himself. Yixing has a reason for that, though: he already knows what he wants to do and it doesn't involve college.

He's going to take care of animals. Like a pet shop or something. It isn't the most enterprising, but someone has to do it, right? And Yixing happens to like animals. That combined with his irrational repulsion of hard work lead to this decision about a year ago. That is also why he had, in his earlier teen years, auditioned for an entertainment company but then backed out when told he'd have to train for several hours a day.

Yixing thinks strictly pragmatic when it comes to decisions– or pretty much anything. With his brain, not his heart. If he does something, he'll have a reason for it.

Just like right now. He's walking along the wide streets of Seoul avoiding the eyes of strangers scrutinizing the pajama-clad teenager hauling the rather large suitcase. He's doing this because he doesn't want to suffer judgmental glares and begin to regret– wait, that's not the main worry.

What is it again? Oh, yeah.

He's _currently homeless_ because of this sequence of events: first, it's a recurring topic of Yixing getting out of the house and into tertiary education, which always ends up in some _kind of you can't control my life_ and _I'm your mother and only guardian yes I can_ kind of argument. This time though, Yixing wanted to prove to his mother that he _is_ capable of living on his own without a degree, so he packed up his stuff (for the night, obviously).

The only thing was, it had slipped his mind to actually _tell_ her what he was doing and why he was doing it, so when his mother walked in on him kissing a beloved stuffed animal and then placing it into a suitcase full of half his room, she had a couple questions. These questions turned into bewilderment and shouts and then, finally, expulsion from the Zhang household.

Yixing doesn't care though because A) he knows deep down his mother loves him and will let him back in, and B) he would get to test his independence he is oh-so-confident in. It's going okay so far. Only the occasional ping of _shit-did-I-leave-Cat-food?_ _(Cat,_ because Yixing decided to not complicate things and give the cat a second name when she already has an identity).

About forty-five minutes into his walk, right when the rainwater starts to soak into his shoes and socks, he has a thought: _wait, where am I going?_

No, he's not stupid.

Just aloof. When Yixing is alone, which is more often than not for the introvert, he gets lost in his mind. He'll start thinking about the logistics of alzheimer's and then it'll go to the LGBTQ because of the homosexual rat marriage portrayed in kids' show _Arthur_ , which he thought of because the heads of the rats kind of look like potatoes and potatoes are in Idaho where his best friend Namjoon is currently visiting because he has family there so that's why he speaks English and a distant third-aunt (they had calculated) of his has alzheimer's and earlier that day he had called him – as they call daily – to tell him that said aunt showed up in his family's kitchen at midnight searching the fridge because she thought Namjoon's mother had stolen her baby of three years ago which had actually been a miscarriage.

The world is full of so much to think about!

And when he has had time to graze over everything, Yixing feels on top of it. It may seem counterintuitive to his hard-work-hate™, but it actually fits right in his philosophy. In his mind he is safe. Safe from being wrong and failing. It's not that he has had any traumatic event as a kid scarring him for life, it's just how he is. He's number one in his mind and as long as he has the approval from himself, he is content.

But right now Yixing's not content. Especially his toes.

He scans the area he's currently in, locating three small businesses and five low-budget chain restaurants and two housing units and seven unidentifiable places. The housing units are currently of Yixing's best interest and they're conveniently next to each other so he can get a first impression of both of them without having to go in and potentially being kidnapped by the Mafia. Or worse, his own mother.

Because he's wondering if all Mafia members have moustaches, Yixing forgets basic traffic safety protocol and is almost hit by a car, which in turn screams at him as it zooms off. After almost having a heart attack, the teen crosses the rest of the street attentively.

"Oops," He mutters as he drags his suitcase to the two buildings, centering himself between the doorways. But he quickly realizes that there are people behind him trying to get by so he diverts into the leftmost path because right is overrated.

Or maybe not.

If Yixing were to suddenly be captivated into some medieval alternate universe, he would be in a brothel. Not that lewd scenes are happening live right in front of him, just that it looks very old fashioned and as if there is something hiding behind all of the tapestries. When Yixing spots a sword mounted on the wooden wall he officially decides _yeah, no;_ he doesn't like it. He wants something in this century. Just as he turns to leave, a voice calls.

"Sir, are you going to stay? If you have more luggage, we can help."

Yixing, out of reflex, turns to see if the person is talking to him. He is. So he answers, "No, I don't like it here. Thanks, though." He's oblivious to the offended look on the worker's face as he leaves.

Or rather, he ignores it.

Yixing isn't the most sympathetic person when it comes to emotion because he believes they're, akin to the right direction, overrated. They are merely chemical reactions in the brain, so how foolish must one be to let that dull blade dictate everything they do when the excalibur of logic is right there?

It's quite annoying, to Yixing, to have to deal with people acting like it's the end of the world over such trivial matters. Yes, a breakup is sad, but it probably happened for a reason. Yixing isn't particularly educated on relationships (on that note, what's sadder than a breakup is living nineteen years without a single date...), but he's sure it's nothing _that_ special. Simply biological instincts telling two people to bind together and procreate, if possible.

Melodrama is the core of modern societal function, and it sucks.

Being particularly apathetic does not blend well with blunt honesty, which is why Yixing doesn't have many friends. Namjoon is an almost perfect specimen of the human race, so Yixing has nothing to comment that would make the too nice of a person dislike him. With others it's a tad different.

Anyways, back to honesty: the right doorway has led to a place that, in all honesty, is not that much better, but it's at least in the twenty-first century. If Yixing were to open up Google reviews right now, he wouldn't be surprised to find the plurality rate less than three out of five stars. The lackluster of the establishment is accompanied by poor hygiene. He can see mold growing on the potted plant in the corner.

But, in order to prove independence, Yixing has to deal with moldy plants and bad Google reviews.

He pulls his wallet from his back left pocket, fishing out his (hopefully not cancelled) debit card as he heads up to the desk. There's no one there, so he has to ring the small bell but it's busted so he's stuck waiting for five minutes before an extremely guilty-looking worker comes out of the back (although Yixing had given the backroom a once-over when he was sure nobody was looking...).

He sputters apologies as he asks what he can do for him. Yixing is surprised at how young and attractive the guy is. He looks as if he could go to his school or something. He wonders what he had done to have to work in a place like this. Not that he's judging. He's homeless.

"May I have a single room for one night– tonight, please?"

The worker, who Yixing has noticed is very flustered: sweaty, face red, clothes (no name tag, but he is dressed somewhere between a fighter pilot and a janitor) mussed; nods his head. "Yeah, kay, one room," He looks lost as he digs through things behind the desk Yixing can't see.

It's a good two minutes of awkwardness before the teen in front of him finally gets his shit together, picking his head up with a smile despite the wait. "That'll be forty-five thousand won, please."

Yixing hands him the card. The employee processes and reciprocates it with a key, "Room one eleven. Thanks. Enjoy your stay." Usually, this would be the part where the customer departs and the next is treated. But instead, as if he has somewhere to be, the employee reverts straight to the backroom.

But not before catching himself on the doorframe, turning and giving Yixing a once-over. Like, with his eyes and all that.

"Seriously. Enjoy your stay." He says, and Yixing thought he saw his lips tug into a small smirk before he's out of his sight.

_Oh?_

_Weird._ He is almost positive that is not part of hospitality service etiquette. Is there actual meaning behind that innuendo or just strange people being strange people? He decides the latter is correct because the first is ridiculous because nothing ever happens in a life like Zhang Yixing's, where he thinks before he acts. Is a life of reckless impulse better than that? Now that he's thinking about it, Yixing adds to his list of reasons why he's doing this that his life needs some excitement. Although he's never been in a relationship, he can probably say he stayed in a motel in the shady part of Seoul without getting murdered.

Note probably, because it hasn't happened yet.

As he is finding his room, the image of the boy smirking enters his mind again. Like a GIF; or a 'kif', as his technologically uneducated swine of a mother likes to pronounce it. Then Yixing's mind runs off because if this had happened with an older individual he would have probably called the police, but how older does that individual have to be?– and he would have also done the same if the person happened to be ugly. It's sad that the elderly and the ugly are prejudiced against in such a subtle way that it's not able to be confronted without it sounding ridiculous.

At that moment, he thanks Randomness (Yixing's belief is not a religion but that people can't accept that so many things occur on pure chance) that he's one of the better looking individuals.

Also in that moment, he realizes he has been standing at room one-hundred and ten for three minutes and if the room's resident is looking through their peephole right now and decides to open the door it will be very hard to explain. So Yixing finds his suite and heads in.

In all honesty, the room is what he was expecting from the quality of the lobby and the horror-movie vibe of the corridors. Shitty. And Yixing doesn't like horror movies. They're highly unrealistic, and since — in his esteemed opinion – more than 9/10's of the world's residents are irrational and illogical, they only serve the purpose of encouraging insomnia and frivolous beliefs. Like zombies.

However, on the related topic, Yixing also gives people a break because he understands it's not always easy to be educated on the subject. It took him (on one ambitious night) around two hours to gather just enough information to incline him towards ghosts not existing. Some lesser known elements would explain a lot of paranormal sightings, and with the ideology that there is an explanation for everything, give science more encouragement in the face of superstition. Of course, most of this information was gathered online, so he took it with a grain of salt.

"Xing," Yixing suddenly speaks, his inner parental figure reprimanding (not that he doesn't have enough from his own mother), "focus!"

That was kind of loud, but not loud enough to disturb the neighbours. Nor the lingering spirits.

When Yixing unpacks his suitcase, he realizes he didn't bring anything to eat. Although he had seen a small collection of snacks in the lobby, he doesn't exactly trust the establishment in the health department. Oh well, it's only one night. He'll live.

He frowns, rifling through the rest of the stuff and questioning _why did I pack this_ and then remembering his reason and then feeling disappointed in himself for thinking that. A dead plant? Maybe he'll use this screwdriver to bolt the door shut to save him from his three enemies: the Mafia, that teenager at the desk, and his mother.

After emptying everything and organizing it on the floor just to reorganize it inside the suitcase, Yixing is sure he could name every single item in it. He gets up and heads to the bathroom. And then he immediately exits and slams the door because there's a spider in the shower and he's not beefing with anything possessing more than four legs. Hopefully the rainwater was enough of a clean, he thinks as he changes (into _another_ pair of pajamas).

He flops onto the bed.

Yixing looks to the clock and it reads 7:39, which is approximately two hours before his _early_ bedtime and four hours before his _desired_ bedtime and six hours before his _mom's-gonna-kill-me_ bedtime and eight hours before his _I-didn't-sleep_ bedtime and, depending on the next day's events, ten-plus hours before his _not-bedtime-bedtime-but-I'll-sleep-anyway_ bedtime.

So basically for at least the next two hours he has nothing to do.

At that moment, Yixing has a thought (an important one– one that makes the cut of these 3133 words), that makes him stare at his lap, and then the unoccupied hold of his right hand...

He wishes he had brought his phone.

But _no_ , because in order to prove his independence (this was decided in the middle of the argument between him and his mother: "you rely too much on that thing!") he mustn't engage with any technology as that would be cheating. So now, contrary to the post-millennial he is, Yixing has to find something to do that doesn't involve _that god damn phone._

Apparently, his mother isn't aware of the multiple studies proving technology's benefits to the brain. It also gives everyone access to the world as if it were an open book and provides exposure to different things. And help. For example, Yixing never would've passed his senior year midterms if it weren't for exemplary answers on reddit for _'how 2 sneak calculator on test successfully'._

Very practical.

And perhaps, because these phone-haters still use the technology nonetheless, they take for granted what the phone does, in result only focusing on the negative and blaming everything on the younger generation. Despite what they say, would they _really_ be willing to revert to sending letters by pigeons and waiting _days_ for what could be exchanged within a couple seconds? Yixing's mother gets impatient just waiting for a pot of water to boil.

On one fateful sixth grade day, Yixing had even tested this popular pigeon phenomenon. Can they _really_ carry letters? His result was that (1): pigeons aren't athletically inclined enough for the task of carrying a piece of paper, and (2): pigeons don't particularly enjoy being in the pocket of a black jacket in the sun for two hours.

Is it slaughter if it was done unknowingly? According to the law, in which murder in self defense won't be prosecuted, probably not. _Probably_ , because the two aforementioned aren't exactly the same. Also _probably_ because Yixing has never told anyone this therefore how would he know?

Oh, hey, it is bedtime #1: _early_ bedtime.

Yixing squints at the oddly fast clock as he unfolds the white duvet (hospitality services require white bedding to assure that it's clean), sliding in and hoping there aren't any cockroaches waiting for him. But who is he kidding? Of course they aren't waiting for him. Nothing unexpected happens in a life like Yixing's.

Even when he tries to spice it up. As shown here, in this very motel where he's staring up at the ceiling, everything still as monotonous as ever. The only remotely interesting thing that has happened today is Yixing leaving the house and almost getting hit by a car. But the latter was just because he was being stupid. In fact, getting hit by a car is the last thing on his _to-do_ list. It would be such a shitty way to die: at the hands of a stranger (and perhaps a bit of own recklessness). And then there's that big mess of whose fault was it and how much money does the family get and fixing the car and then all of the aftermath of, of course, a death.

Yixing, if he were to die, wants an epic way to go. Like an abduction by the Mafia.

Yet here he is, laying in bed not on the verge of sleep waiting for the verge of sleep. All he's going to do tomorrow is wake up, pack his things, and book it out of the place and find his home and then get yelled at by his mother and then unpack his things and revert to his normal, bland life. All because he thinks before he acts.

How it sucks to be smart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a bit of an info-dump, but it'll jump right into more interesting stuff and action the next chapter! It may or may not have to do with the fighter pilot janitor dude... Thank you so much for reading!


	2. Not a Vape Pod

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing wakes in the middle of the night to an unwelcome visitor.

**SOMEWHERE** between dusk and dawn Yixing stirs, lively mind dead as he can’t process a single thought... yet there’s a feeling.

Lithe hands weave through his hair, trailing down his face and cupping his cheeks. The hands are warm like his mother’s. Yixing's eyes are still closed, but he is now, through a foggy mind, wondering why the loving touch isn't a slap and why he isn't currently being yelled at for running away. Unless he hadn't ran away, and it was all a dream– no, that would be too vivid; a hallucination, perhaps. But what would there be to cause such an imagine? Was it that strawberry milkshake from McDonald's? Curse him for eating fast food! How much money could he get if he sues? But does he have the proper evidence–

The hands caress their way up to Yixing's ear, which is suddenly yanked with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. And _boy_ can he feel it.

 _"HEY!"_ Yixing's first response is to screech, submitting to the pull as he falls right out of bed. His mother had lost her grip in the rush so he takes the chance to cover his ears in defense. But he then lifts them slightly because he should probably hear what she has to say for herself so he can point out the flaws and win the argument. 

Only that, upon actually opening his eyes, it is not his mother standing above him.

Instead, as Yixing quickly recalls, it's that young fighter-pilot-janitor hybrid standing above him. He is still clad in the same fit, with this time a mic to accompany him. The moonlight shows his lips are moving, but Yixing can't make out what he's saying because he's too busy panicking because _what the fuck_ but also the real questions like why is he in here and what does he want and above all is he the Mafia?! Why doesn't he have a mustache?!

 _Stay calm,_ Yixing tells himself as he sits up in a less vulnerable position. _You can probably take him in a fight. Or just run. Is the door open? Shit, well, it's not like it can be locked from the inside. It'll only be another second._ Above him, the employee still mumbles unintelligible things into the communication unit before nodding and looking to him. Despite the fact that he just spooked poor Yixing out of bed at such an ungodly hour, he is smiling. As if he's _excited_. Now Yixing’s mind clears up and he finally hears. It’s a velvety voice laced with suave confidence.

"Wassup."

Wassup. Wassup?! Is this some kind of code? Yixing swallows a cry for help. Maybe he can reason with this guy and get out safely. Perhaps a screwdriver would be of interest? How much does he have on his debit? _"Why..?"_ Is the first thing he asks because it is the most impeding question. However, it comes out tiny so he repeats a bit louder. "Why?"

 _"Why?"_ The fighter-pilot (Yixing decided that sounds cooler than janitor) echoes, then letting out a chuckle. Not a maniacal cackle, but rather a giggle at something sweet, such as witnessing a child's naivety. Patronizing. It gives him a bad feeling.

"Aww, you're adorable. You're going to make a great addition. We really need more of the quiet type in the pod–" And then there's abruptly, "Shut up Chen, we both know you're the loudest. Annoying whore...”

This is too casual for the Mafia. Yixing expected a language of numbered codes and tattoos and handcuffs and mustaches and middle-aged men, not this oddly good-looking teenager talking about vape pods and telling whoever he's talking with to shut his trap. If he had the emotional capacity, he'd probably laugh at how underwhelming this is.

Oh, wait. He does.

"Wait, what?" The employee's face turns confused, "Why are you _laughing?_ This is an abduction for god's sake!– No, Jongdae, _you_ shut your retarded dinosaur looking ass the _fuck_ up before I get back there and beat you! I'm on a mission, can't you see!"

This only makes Yixing laugh more as his assailant is flustered. He takes advantage of the arguing with this _Jongdae_ and makes a break for it, hoping his superman pajama pants will grant him some kind of powers as he runs into the door. He hears the other's footsteps right behind him but doesn't panic, because he has got his hand on the knob and just has to yank–

Oh, it's locked. 

It's locked from the inside. This wasn't supposed to happen.

A shiver runs down his spine as Yixing feels two hands plant themselves on his shoulders. He suddenly recalls how the pilot had stated something along the lines of an _abduction;_ the very suggestive _enjoy your stay_ from the night previous– it's all piecing together. Just not the initial question of _why?_ But right now is not the time to ponder over _why_ because there is currently physical contact which means a struggle will probably ensue.

"Stay calm," Says the voice behind him as if that isn't what Yixing has been telling himself ever since he woke up, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just need you to come with me, alright?"

Yixing isn't going anywhere without answers. He keeps his voice steady as he speaks, "Where are you planning to take me? And _why?_ You don't even know me." To be honest, he wouldn't be this confident had this guy been older and more intimidating. But instead, he is faced with someone shorter than him that doesn't seem to know what he's doing.

Another one of those patronizing giggles. "So oblivious, Zhang Yixing." Never mind. This guy might just know what he’s doing. Along with his first and last name, which Yixing _never_ gave to him. "I know who you are, and I need your help. Just outside, so if you'll cooperate we'll be finished in a quick ten minutes."

"Help with what?" Yixing barrages, "And if it's so simple, why wake me up in that way? What's the need? Who are you talking to? What am I an ‘addition’ to?"

It's a few – worrying – moments before the other replies, the only sound between being Yixing's shaky breathing. The shaky-breather also realizes he still has his back to the pilot, and any second something could be jammed into his neck. Or his back. Or his...

"Behind the building there's something blocking the window that I need help moving. It’s your window so I thought I’d ask you. That's all."

When Yixing hears speech from the boy's headphones and looks to the window to see nothing blocking the night view, his inclination is solid. "You're lying."

A distressed sigh. Yixing feels the fingers tighten. "Look, I'm not. Just follow me for a moment and–"

"No," Yixing spins around, shoving the employee back and diving for his suitcase. Just as his left hand finds the screwdriver (he regrets it not being his right), he feels the impact of a whole other body on top of him. 

The air escapes him as he tries to turn over, battling with the pilot on the floor. He must see the screwdriver because he's trying to get it from Yixing who's trying to stab him with it. Right now, he's not focused on the aftermath of if he actually harmed the other.

All the while, this guy is _still_ trying to convince him. "Come on– just– just cooperate, dammit!" Is infused with breaths and groans of when Yixing gets a good hit to the gut. Said responds with just "No!" as he continues to struggle. He soon realizes that the pilot is actually pretty small; at least smaller than him. He uses this to his advantage as he maneuvers the fight to a downhill battle, pinning the other with his weight as he catches his breath. The pilot squirms under him, clearly surprised at the outcome.

Yixing raises the screwdriver, but hesitates: "Wait, I don't want to kill you– I _can't_ kill you." Unlike the movies, he isn't exactly keen on being charged for homicide, even if it's in self-defense. He'll still have to go to court and all that jazz. He has only committed one murder and that was a pigeon and he doesn't even want to think what it would be like with a human. So what is he to do? Politely ask the guy to chill out while he calls the cops? Why don't the movies answer these kinds of questions?! 

"I'm not planning to kill you–" Yixing decides a bluff won’t hurt, "but I will if you don't do what I say. I'm not going with you anywhere. Let down your guard and let me see that headset thing."

All he gets is a glare, so he repeats himself, "I said, I'm not going with you anywhere, so–"

He is interrupted by a blow of sheer force, and his head is suddenly smacked onto the wooden floor such that everything becomes distant for a second. He feels himself being wrestled but can't make any effort to fight back because everything's concentrated on the pain in his head. A rapid migraine spikes through his skull. 

When he comes back, like a camera regaining focus, Yixing is now the one pinned down, a gun to his head. His eyes widen, looking up to see the red tip of some kind of pistol raised right to his forehead. It’s touching lightly as if the bullet potentially going through his brain will be gentle. 

He suddenly has a change of heart.

 _You know, maybe it won't be so bad. Maybe you'll make a friend._ Yixing lifts his hands up in defeat. The pilot, regaining a dominating persona, forces him to his feet. He doesn't let him forget that there's a weapon aimed at his skull as he urges him forward, right to the door that was locked. Yixing decides now isn't the right time to ask the questions such as _wait I thought this was locked how can you just open it like that_ and _can I at least change out of these pajamas and get some shoes_ partially because he doesn't want to get shot and partially because he's panicking. This feeling is new to him, pure terror, because nothing has ever been real enough as so Yixing's had to genuinely worry for his well-being. But now he is – quite literally – at gunpoint. The constant beating of his heart and adrenaline daring him to try to escape is all too much and he feels himself becoming lightheaded. 

_They're just chemicals, you'll be fine. You’re not actually dying unless he shoots you._ Yixing reassures himself as he's being pushed through the dark hall. A circular light flickers on ahead, highlighting his path. It's fitting, because following the light is confronting death. But usually it would be a happy death. Not a death where he is killed by a teenager forcing him somewhere with vape pods.

Yixing tries to not let his fear manifest as he's lead back to the lobby, once again facing the moldy plants. He has half a mind to ask where he is being taken, but the gun still at his head suggests otherwise. For a moment, he thinks he is being brought to the exit, but instead he is twisted to the front desk. He stubs his socked toe on the gate, an awkward moment following as he stumbles in and catches himself on the table. 

A sympathetic hiss comes from the other. "Yikes. You good bro?"

This all seems out of place, especially since his gun is still pointed at the suffering Yixing.

He bites back an array of swears, "Yep. _Fine."_ Yixing notices how the other raises the gun the slightest as he moves and decides to put his hands up for extra caution. "Why are you..." He doesn't exactly know how to phrase the question because he had never thought he would be asking it in this kind of situation, "being so... casual?"

The young pilot shrugs, "Guess I'm just nice. And I want to have a good first impression for my future partner. Future partner in crime. My future _P-I-C."_

Yixing furrows his brows, _is he talking about me?_ "Wait, what–"

"Move," The somewhat less panicked mood reverts right back to _I'm-gonna-die_ as the gun is cocked, "we don't got all night, sweetheart."

Yixing is then pushed into the backroom behind the lobby. Now he is even more confused. He had taken a glance in the place earlier and definitely doesn't remember a bright light occupying the expanse of a closet. Nor it being so damn cold. Upon closer proximity, Yixing realizes this closet isn't just any normal closet. It's a stairwell. A stairwell illuminated by fluorescent blue light, unknown the source. If anything, _this_ is where he meets his demise. He turns, giving the guy a _wait-are-you-shitting-me_ kind of look that's replied to with another shrug. Yixing doesn't miss the way his lips curl, as if he's enjoying this.

"What the hell is that?" Yixing gestures to the portal-looking closet, mortified. Unless this is some elaborate scheme contrived by his mother to prove him wrong (but he doesn't believe she has the wit for something that would fool her own son), this goes against a _lot_ of things Yixing believes. First of all, _what the fuck?_ And then the other things, like why wasn't that closet there earlier and how does the lighting work in such a blinding way and _why_ does this employee think he is the perfect individual for kidnapping and taking to this closet. He experiences that foreign terror again, but also, in his eccentric mind, the slightest of curiosity. 

"That's the entrance to _the pod."_ For some reason, the pilot decides to put narratoresque emphasis on the last two words, as if it is a replacement for _hell,_ or _purgatory,_ or _your mom's basement._

Before Yixing can ask what _the pod_ is (since it's clearly not a vape pod considering the size), he is once again shoved forward. He has no choice but to enter said pod. Squinting his eyes because the light is too much for his poor 15/20 vision, he feels a strange warmth radiate around him as he advances the closet. The cold knob on the back of his neck is a reminder that the other is still behind him, offering no sympathies than the _Yikes. You good bro?_

 _I'm actually doing this,_ Yixing shakes his head in disbelief as he takes a step in. Luckily, the floor doesn't break under him and he doesn't fall into the depths of hell. Instead, the air gets more frigid, the light becomes too bright so he's going in blindly, and the walls narrow a bit too close for comfort. He counts four and a half steps ascended before he flinches at a door shutting behind him. Strangely enough, it sounds absolutely nothing like the wooden door the mystery closet possessed. This shut sounded mechanic, like large metal doors meeting. The next thing he hears is a "Come on dude." as he is once again nudged. 

Once he sees something that's not pure white, Yixing picks up his pace. This is the cause of him tripping on the last step, falling flat on his face before he can see what lays before him. It's the kind of feeling such as accidentally dropping your phone on your face whilst it's suspended above, except Yixing is now the phone. He goes to stand up, but then has the impromptu notion that if he plays dead maybe he'll be donned useless and let off wherever he is. _Don't move._

Or maybe he'll just get kicked in the side. 

"Get up." Says the all-too-familiar voice. Yixing groans, clutching his side as he turns over onto his back. He doesn't know what he's expecting, but it's definitely not this. 

He is in a hallway, but not one with all 90 degree angles and a nice carpet. A hallway that's shaped as a hexagon. The walls and floor are some kind of metal, the trim embellished with a yellow and black caution-tape like lining. Bordering this trim is lights, but they are turned off at the moment. It's extremely crude but high-tech at the same time, as if he had just entered a spaceship. Small yellow light bulbs encased in wire boxes line the walls, giving a homey illumination to the anything but homey place. There aren't any doors as far as Yixing can see.

Wait, there _aren't_ any doors?

He sits up, turning the direction he is absolutely positive he just came from to find a wall. No door. His eyes widen, bringing his hands up to feel the wall for some kind of button that could've caused this. All the while his mind races; questions with strong emotion don't make a good combination. They make a nasty concoction of petrification. What's this? Why's he here? What can explain this dream or hallucination? This is illogical. Wrong. Not supposed to happen. Where's his mother? What's she going to think? Did Cat get fed? How long will he be here? He feels his breathing speed up and suddenly he is frozen, in between sitting and standing with his palms on the wall as if he can say _opensaysme_ and he'll be able to return. Yixing isn't like this. He's calm. Controlled. So why's he having a full-fledged panic attack? He's better than this, dammit!

"Bro, are you okay?" He hears the pilot ask, though it sounds a bit distant. _Calm down!_ Yixing reprimands himself, and with that he's able to choke out a meek,

_"Yes?”_

"Lies." The voice goes on, "But that's okay for now, I guess. Everyone's got their initial reactions. At least you're not crying. That would be embarrassing to watch. And I already get enough second-hand embarrassment with these guys– oh, the guys! The _dudes!_ You should meet them."

How much this guy talks only overwhelms Yixing more. He turns, slumping down against the wall as he brings his hands to his face and focuses on his breathing for a good ten seconds. It works. He calms, albeit feeling a bit fatigued. Thanks, Instagram self-care pages. Now he is able to face the pilot with his thoughts mostly in order. Yixing reasons that he is so panicked because he doesn't know what the hell is going on, so that's what he must figure out. 

"Where am I? Who are you? What's your name? Why am I here–"

"Okay, one question at a time pal," The pilot says, smiling. He kneels down to Yixing's level, which he once again finds patronizing. But who is he kidding? He's a mess right now.

"So my name's Baekhyun. Byun Baekhyun, but don't call me anything but Baekhyun please. You're going to be my new mission partner... Oh, right. You're on a spaceship! We're heading to Exoplanet at the moment so we can show you around and stuff, but you're here to help us with yourself and whatever power RF_05 chooses."

Cue the blankest stare _ever._

"What?" Yixing doesn’t think he heard that right. Was he speaking Spanish? 

Baekhyun puts a hand on his hip, "You really want me to repeat all of that?"

He's afraid to nod, but Yixing does anyway. 

As it is reiterated, he quickly realizes that if he tries to mend this with logic he's just going to stress himself out, so he does something he has never done and tucks it away. Temporarily, of course.

What he has pieced together is that he has been selected from Earth (god knows why– Randomness?) to be granted a ‘power’ from whatever a ‘RF_05’ is and he is to help out with 'missions' as Baekhyun's partner for some kind of space thing. It also doesn't seem they are the only people here by the way Baekhyun's speaking and how he had earlier been talking through a mic. And also they are currently on a spaceship on the way to 'Exoplanet' which is probably some kind of base for the team.

Ah, now Yixing gets it. 

It just doesn't make any fucking sense. 

His jaw lingers open, trying to phrase a question that will answer all the logical screwups in this whole situation, but there's a 504 Error in his brain because he can't get any damn words. Baekhyun finds this funny, apparently, because he giggles and ruffles Yixing's hair as if he's a child. 

"Don't worry! Soon it'll all be second nature to you. Even the anti-grav toilets. I promise." He reassures Yixing as if it actually helps. The other scowls, ignoring the hand Baekhyun had offered and standing up on his own. 

"Don't do that." He says, fixing his hair. "–Treat me like a child. Don't."

Baekhyun's brows raise in feigned offense, a smile giving it all away. "Kay, sorry. Didn't know you were so sensitive." 

"I'm–" Yixing cuts himself off, deciding this is not the time to argue over such trivial matters. He sighs, "Just... I can't believe this. I literally wanted one fucking night out of the house and _this_ happens." It's another new feeling. Of course Yixing has felt indignant before, but never this angry. Never such an injustice brought upon him! Typically, if something unfortunate were to happen to him, he'd know exactly why and fix it. But this is something totally new, terrifying, and confusing. All the things Yixing loathes. 

"Tell me about it." Baekhyun empathizes, "I was snatched in the school bathroom. Like, in the middle of my business. But it's okay. It's not bad here. Food's great, actually. And what do you mean 'one night out of the house'?"

He fixes the cap he has on, which completely distracts him from the posed question. Yixing gives him a once over. "What are you wearing and why?"

At first Baekhyun seems confused, but quickly catches on. "Oh, this. It's my mission outfit. Well, one of them. I thought this one would fit 'break-into-villa-resort-and-take-sleeping-boy' the best, but it turns out it wasn't a villa resort. So basically I put on my sexy swimsuit under this for nothing. Manager didn't think it was nothing, though, if you're catching my vibe."

Yixing scrunches his nose, "I didn't need to know that." 

"You asked."

Another sigh. He already dislikes this guy (who has, by the way, used _dude, bro, sweetheart,_ and _pal_ all in the extent of thirty minutes). Yixing searches his mental list of questions, scrolling past the _what-the-fucks_ and _please-elaborate-on-anti-grav-toilets_ and getting to the practical stuff. "How do I know where I am? What is Exoplanet? What is RF_05? Why is it choosing my 'power'? Power? What are missions? What's my purpose even being here?"

Baekhyun takes this as a cue to start walking, so he takes Yixing's arm and begins through the halls. Yixing's uncomfortable with the contact so he quickly shimmies out of it and creates some distance between them, getting a frown. 

"Rude, but anyways... You just gotta figure your way out. I mean, if you yell loud enough, you might access the hallway AI and they'll help you out. If you speak Portuguese, that is. It's not _that_ big of a spaceship. I got it in a week."

It's as if the more Baekhyun speaks, the more questions Yixing gets. Why Portuguese?

"Exoplanet is our base, but also our mission. I'll explain that later, but all you need to know for now is that it's important. RF_05 is a super artificial intelligence that runs the whole game. She directs us on missions and is a database and all that. She'll choose your power based on her robot-smarts. Missions are self explanatory." _No they're not,_ Yixing thinks. 

"And you're here from the choice of wise ol' RF_05. Don't know why, no offense, but she has her reasons. Could ask. Never did." As Yixing's wondering why Baekhyun wouldn't ask, he is redirected the other way, having strayed off. Now he starts to see doors, which are simply indents in the wall with a padlock to the left of it as if everyone here is left-handed. Aren't they supposed to be on the right? Or is it like driving on the left side of the road? Do Americans, who drive on the right side, have a majority of left-handed people? But the AI speaks Portuguese, not American.

 _Back to your questions,_ Yixing redirects his mind as he often does, finding reassurance in how he's getting lost in his thoughts again. Back to normal. "Why Portuguese? And missions are _not_ self explanatory." 

"You think _I_ know why half the shit here's in Portuguese?" Baekhyun raises a brow, "I don't deny I am a genius, but that is above my knowledge. Perhaps this spaceship was built by the Mexicans... And I'll explain it like this: missions are given by RF with directions and shit, and they can really be anything. From, like, protecting an alien village to helping breed giant cows, you never really know what to expect. It's sometimes dangerous... why are you looking at me like that?"

"Nothing." Yixing mumbles, looking away. His head hurts trying to process this. "It's just that I don't believe you. Aliens may exist, but 'powers' definitely don't. They go against simple laws of physics. Why are you lying?"

There's again that giggle that is really getting on his nerves. Baekhyun claps his hands together, clearly amused. "I'm not lying, silly! I'm probably the most honest person here, to be honest with you. I know it's hard to believe now, but you'll get used to it. Really. In fact~" He suddenly stops, turning to a door Yixing didn't even realize was there. He types in a password whose pattern looked worryingly similar to backwards _lana_ before pressing a button. The door slowly opens, emitting a steam-like noise. 

"You're about to meet the other seven!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! i hope this one was more interesting :) it'll only get better from here (not for yixing tho, poor dude) 
> 
> and if you're wondering what i mean by baekhyun's fighter-pilot janitor outfit, watch ze power mv or their stage with the matching outfits
> 
> n e ways tysm for reading love! <3


	3. Dying to Get Out of Awkward Situations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing meets *the guys*. And subsequently the medical unit.

**“IF WE** stay absolutely still, it won't sense us..."

Yixing didn't know what to expect when he entered the room of _'the guys'._ Maybe something like dudes in tuxes toiling away at high-tec mission control desks, perhaps warriors training in spacesuits with cool weapons, or a galactic troop flanking a giant robot named RF_05. 

Whatever may it be, it was definitely not seven sleepover-dressed guys chilling in a cramped room that could be easily mistaken for a college dormitory. 

Yixing has to blink a couple times, asking himself if _this_ is really what he's seeing. All heads had turned to him and everyone froze. He doesn’t like this many eyes on him, especially when he can't even take in all of the room. 

There's so much stuff. He spots Fritos next to a can Campbell's soup on a wall shelf, under that guns hung up as if decoration. There's a large grey locker and several posters on the back wall. The whole place is incredibly messy. The room has maybe three different carpets and all the shelves overflow with books and magazines and albums and others of the sort. Behind the out-of-date television (exhibiting some kind of video game) is a window letting in yellow sunlight as if they aren’t in the middle of space. It's incredibly comfortable but Yixing's incredibly uncomfortable with everyone staring at him, not making a single movement.

He scans _the guys_. Two had been in the middle of playing whatever is on the old television and three surround a table with Jenga blocks and the last two are on the right side of the room, one fiddling with a tennis ball and the other reading something. Their faces range from inquisitive to shocked to amused, the last especially pertaining to Baekhyun who currently stands near the back wall with his hand on a globe.

Wait, _Baekhyun who currently stands near the back wall with his hand on a globe?_

Yixing startles, looking behind him to where Baekhyun had _just_ been to find a closed door. How did he do that? He's even wearing a different outfit now, too. Great. Now Yixing is alone _and_ without an escape. He turns and everybody is still staring, only movements their blinking. Why aren't they moving? Saying anything? Are they robots? Is he really in a vivid dream like he had been speculating the whole time? Because of this, he freezes too. Yixing isn't one for greetings. Nor any social interaction for that matter. 

It's a whole thirty seconds of this; thoughts racing. _How long is this going to last? My legs are tired._

His odds of eight-to-one prove worthless as he is still the first one that loses the unspoken challenge. This is courtesy to his stomach, which lets out a ravenous growl and Yixing remembers that he hasn't eaten in about a day. In response to this, he sees some composures struggle, smiles tugging on their lips until one, the blonde guy holding the controller near the television, absolutely loses it and then the whole room erupts into laughter. Yixing wishes he could disappear right then and there because _fuck_ that was embarrassing. Despite how he wants to hide his face in his hands he doesn't because that would only admit defeat. 

Instead, as the room's currently distracted, he prepares a dialogue that will get all eight of these degenerates out of their seats. Something along the lines of: _You're laughing, really? First you KIDNAP me and then laugh your asses off because I'm starving because, if you couldn't tell, I've been abducted, and also haven't had a proper meal in a day! Somebody better explain where the FUCK I am and WHY I'm here or else–_

And then Yixing stops because _or else what?_ Again, it's eight-to-one, and he is already on the unathletic side. He's being completely unrealistic, which makes him even angrier. Now he's more flustered. Flustered and angry. He hates this. 

But nonetheless, _"You're laughing, rea–"_

"What's your name!?" Pipes up the same blonde guy who was the first to laugh. Apparently the question is _so_ funny because it elicits another explosion of giggles.

The room promptly flares up in questions. "Where are you from?!"

A guy with blue hair (which matches the blue shirt of the guy next to him) says, "Do you know my bud Kim–" 

"You're definitely not the guy from that one bathroom!" Interrupts the athlete looking dude with the other console controller. 

"What the hell?"

"Leave before it's too late." Mutters a large-eyed boy behind the Jenga stack. The blue-haired guy slaps a hand over his mouth, a fight ensuing.

"He's kidding, haha!" 

"Don't say _haha_ out loud you uncultured–"

"You're kinda cute. No homo though." 

"Who said that?!"

This is all too much for Yixing. He doesn't even get out of the house. What is he supposed to do when he is kidnapped and brought onto a spaceship to get mortally embarrassed in front of eight guys his age and then barraged with questions and immersed in social interaction all against his will? Playing dead didn't work last time, but perhaps second time's a charm...? 

_"–...Oh my god,_ did he just _faint?!"_

"God dammit Jongdae, you and your sonic voice box killed him!"

Gasps. 

"HE’S _DEAD!”_

“Say it louder, would you!”

"You're louder than I am you big-eared oaf!"

"He's dead?!"

"Shit, how do we hide a body?!" 

"Bury him?!" 

"Where the fuck would we bury someone on a _spaceship,_ Jongin?!" 

"Anti-grav toilet?"

"I wish I was in his place."

"Shit man. He was cute."

"Jesus christ Baekhyun, why can't your horny ass do ANYTHING right?!"

_"Be quiet!"_

With that shout, in particular, Yixing hears a voice that hasn't spoken before. A gentle one that seemed to be straining to get so loud. A relief. He doesn't open his eyes, but he hears footsteps getting closer. He is guessing everyone's kneeling down to inspect if he really died or not, so he tunes into his inner actor and tries to play dead like the squirrels on the side of the road. 

Only that Yixing doesn't have an inner actor. 

"He's breathing, _he's breathing._ He just fainted. _Oh thank god,"_ Baekhyun's voice, and suddenly hands are on his face. It takes everything Yixing has to not flinch and slap him. The hushed debating fades out as Yixing contemplates what to do. He is currently _Status: unconscious,_ so he can either A) wake up right then and there, or B) wait to be transported to a medical unit under the assumption that there is one. Reasoning out the pros and cons, A is more dangerous because it's probable he'll be immersed right back into interrogation but even more chaotic considering he just 'fainted'. He knows this'll happen because they are not sympathetic people, they are teenage boys. B, although it is a bit risky to assume that he'll be brought to sanctuary, is definitely less risky than facing these guys. Additionally, if he is brought somewhere else that means it is away from _here._ Away From Here sounds nice.

Now that he has his answer, _stay dead till you're away from here,_ Yixing tunes back into the discourse.

"Chanyeol, you're tall and buff, you carry him." Says another gentle voice, but not the same one from earlier. More airy. 

Whoever 'Chanyeol' is complains, "But Sehun and Jongin are too!" His voice is very deep.

"Hyung, I'm in the middle of a match– Jongdae, that's cheating you bastard!" Exclaims suspected 'Jongin'. There's then a muffled screech. 

"We could each take a limb?" Suggests a brusque voice.

"Good idea. Wait, no, we only have three people." Chanyeol replies.

"Yixing's tall. He can be the fourth." Says Baekhyun. 

After this statement there's a moment before a pained whine from the same person. _"OWW!_ Soo! What the hell!" Yixing can't identify 'Soo' (who he thinks he likes as well) because someone else speaks. 

"Whatever, I'll do it. He can't be that heavy, right?" Says the same voice that suggested Chanyeol carry Yixing in the first place. After this, he feels hands dig under him to be scooped up bridal style. He is lifted easily, as if the one hundred and sixty pounds of Yixing don’t exist. 

_"Flex."_

"Shut up and open the door." He knows it's the same guy speaking because he feels the vibration of his airy voice. 

In retrospect, Yixing hadn't thought about how uncomfortable this would be. How can the women in movies be carried bridal-style by those guys into the sunset without retaining a single injury? How can they have arms boning into the backs of their knees and fingers digging into their shoulders without complaint? Is it the hypnotizing masculinity Yixing's missing? Because he feels like he's about to either drop out of this dude's arms onto the floor or the same thing except he'll break his neck first. Maybe it's Movie Magic. Yixing needs some Movie Magic right now to transport him back into his bed. 

Shit, Paopao is still at that motel! 

Yixing's stuffed animal named Paopao – because _Stuffed Animal 14_ was too complicated – that he had brought for security purposes is probably sitting on the dirty motel's pillow all alone. He suddenly feels sad not because of how lonely Paopao is right now, because that's unrealistic, stuffed animals can't feel anything, but because of the possibility of it being stolen. Right then Yixing also remembers all his other things of value inevitable to be taken unless he can go back: his debit card, that screwdriver, his small hair comb. Shit, and what about Cat at home?! Yixing knows his mother had always been reluctant to get her. Would she starve the poor thing? 'Forget' Cat's passing?! Forget Yixing?! 

Despite this sudden wave of emotion, Yixing will be damned if he cries. He hasn't validly cried since he was sixteen because he and Namjoon had gotten into an argument– and _Namjoon!_ What about him?! Yixing can see his phone, back at his house ringing with calls from his best friend. Perhaps they have a galactic line here? Or super space-pigeons that won't die when faced against a hot pocket for four hours? 

Yixing almost gasps as he's suddenly dropped onto a surface somewhat plush; more rubbery. He suspects this is the medical unit he was thinking of as he is suddenly aware of the fluorescent-toned light and the silence but for small beeps of machinery. He knows the scenery because of the time his mother stubbed her toe so hard it broke and he accompanied her to the hospital. The only thing missing is the _"Looks like someone else is going to have to do the cleaning for a couple months."_

"Shit, sorry," Says the same voice quietly, as if talking to himself. Yixing hears several pairs of feet, but by the lack of shouting he knows it's probably the quieter of the bunch. Unless they’re seconds away from screaming. _Is_ there even a Quieter of The Bunch?(!)

"Didn't think you'd make it, Minseokkie-hyung." Yixing recognizes this as the other guy from earlier he liked. It’s gentle as well, but not as airy.

"Are you calling me weak?"

"No– just small." Yixing envisions the person behind the voice holding their hands up defensively at an angry midget. For some reason, he thinks of him and his mother. 

"Alright, I'm leaving. Don't tell them I've disappeared or they'll come looking for me." Says a third voice: the other _other_ one Yixing thought he liked.

Yixing is pretty sure the third voice just left because he hears the soft shutting of a mechanic door. Now there are most likely two people in here. And perhaps a couple robots because he then hears, "Nurse, analysis?"

 _Oh, great._ He thinks because he suspects it's some sort of AI by the choice of words and an AI can see straight through his bullshit. He prepares to pretend to wake up, but doesn't need to because he lets out a surprised yelp and sits right up when the words of "No injuries detected" come _right out of_ _the fucking bed._

It takes the fast-breathing Yixing a moment to adjust his eyes to the bright room. He expected this, all pristine and high-tec. The walls are light grey and sleek, all furniture and machinery in matching shades of monochrome. He just didn't expect it to be so small, especially considering these people go on 'missions'.

Oh, right. These people. AKA the ones sitting _right_ there looking _right_ at him as if he’s some sort of alien. 

They are two guys his age. The left one is wearing a white sweatshirt (with tears in it? What kind of fashion is this?) and a headband with some of his hair braided in little strands and the other on the right is wearing a yellow beanie and that blue sweater that matched that other guy's blue hair. Yixing figures the guy with the white had carried him here because of the redness of his face, but then again there is the possibility he has a skin condition or something. Also, his eyes make him look like a cat. Kind of like his Cat, actually. Yixing doesn't have anything to remember the guy on the right by. They each have a 50% chance of being Minseok. Or Minseokkie, if that wasn't just a nickname. Or Seokkie, but who the fuck names their child _Seokkie?_ Them just staring at him doesn’t answer his questions.

Since these people have an apparent problem with speaking, Yixing goes first. "Good morning. Or afternoon. Or night. I don't know what time it is." _I think I'm going to go insane._

The cat-eyed dude checks his fancy looking wristband. "It's 23:43."

At post-millennial and un-enlisted Yixing's blank stare, the blue sweater guy translates. "11:43 at night. Here we use military time."

 _11:43? I_ know _it was just past 2 in the morning._ Yixing feels sick, but not in his stomach. In his brain. Brain-sick. And hungry. "What timezone is this? GMT?" 

"Gee em what–"

"No." Answers the same guy. "Here doesn't correspond with any timezones. I think someone just picked a time and stuck with it."

 _That's one way to do it,_ Yixing thinks, relieved that he's not going crazy. It's still three in the morning in Seoul. In Seoul where his mother and Cat are at home and his belongings in the motel. 

In the bed across from him they both take a seat. The guy with the blue sweater is clearly the speaker of the two. "Anyways, I know you're freaked out, but everything is alright. I promise. You'll probably feel more stable if we introduce ourselves. I'm Junmyeon, or _Suho_ , as my Agent name is," at this, the cat-eyed dude (who Yixing swore _wasn't_ going to be Minseok/Minseokkie/not Seokkie) smirks a little. Junmyeon jabs a thumb to him, "And that's Minseok. His Agent name is Xiumin. You'll get an Agent name too, but you don’t have to stress about it. Is there anything you’re dying to know? We want to help as much as we can for you to not panic too much." 

Junmyeon's voice is oddly soothing and Yixing is thankful for that, but also not thankful for it because it makes him realize how utterly exhausted he is and he feels as if he could drop asleep any moment. But no, answers first. "What is this? All of this? I don't understand. Anything." 

"Yeah, I know the feeling. When I first came I was like, 'this goes against everything I was taught.'" Unlike Baekhyun, Junmyeon is sympathetic, not patronizing. Maybe some of the people here aren't so bad, despite the earlier incident. 

Minseok adds shyly, "I cried for like five hours– not that it's bad though. I was just... not good at handling shock." 

Junmyeon nods along, taking his beanie off and fiddling with it in his hands which kind of distracts Yixing. "So to explain what this whole thing is... it's like... you know as a kid when you'd watch those shows with the super space heroes? The ones that would go on all sorts of missions to make sure the universe was safe?"

Yixing nods, averting his gaze from the yellow heap of fabric to their faces. Not a glint of _I'm-actually-kidding-and-just-misleading-you-for-shits-and-giggles._

"Well, that's basically us. But the ‘reality’ version." 

He has had enough exposure to internet culture to know what that means, but is confused because they have all of this high-tech equipment Japan would surely declare war for. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, we have all this super advanced technology," Junmyeon doesn't even need to gesture to Yixing's talking bed, "but we just don't exactly have..."

"Super advanced minds." Minseok finishes for him, and Yixing sees the way his lips purse. 

Yixing has a feeling they are the more mature (and quieter) of the bunch. Although he hasn't gotten to know the others yet, some of the dialogue exchanged earlier made him think: _are_ _these dudes for real?_

But, to the topic at hand: a _space superhero?_ What is this, a comic book? If so, where are the cool drawings? Is it a fanfiction? If so, where are the fans? By now, he has gotten over that this isn't a dream. But now, his logic-oriented mind keeps clashing with everything like a broken calculator, only stressing him out further when he cannot do anything but accept it's authenticity. There is only so much time before he’ll go crazy. 

Although there is the seemingly easy way of just _accepting it how it is,_ a _lot_ of negatives surface. Logic is Yixing's security, his foundation for absolutely everything because it works every single time. It's his secret weapon, thinking things out and weaving his way through life like a child's puzzle of whites and blacks and even the most ambiguous shades of greys. It's why he is an esteemed individual who doesn't care about the opinions of others; it tells him that it _doesn't really matter._ Because in truth, it doesn't– that is logical. L usually stands for Love but it also stands for Logic, the Love of Yixing's Life. 

Without it, he's Lost. 

Without it – which Yixing has never really taken the time to think about because it’s _impossible_ – his security is gone, walls broken. It undermines all his confidence because things may turn out a way completely unthinkable and then he'll be wrong and have no idea why nor a feasible explanation. L also stands for Legs, and without Yixing's Legs of Logic he can't walk or Love or Live. He's stuck with the W, the _Without,_ which, ironically enough, is the one Yixing doesn't want. He Likes the L. Loves it. 

"Hello?" 

Yixing is torn from his stupor by a hand waving in front of his face. He blinks, reddening. He did it again, dammit.

"Sorry." He mutters, fabricating something other than _I get lost in my thoughts_ because that sounds like something an edgy pre-teen would say. "I'm just very lightheaded still."

"Oh, that's alright." Junmyeon smiles, "Take all the fainting you need. Just don't do it in the anti-grav bathrooms, or you'll regret it." He looks to Minseok pointedly, the latter shaking his head and looking to the ground. 

"Why was I chosen?" Yixing asks, "To be a space-warrior, or whatever. Why me? I don't think I'm fit for that kind of role."

"RF_05 has her mysterious ways.” Junmyeon shrugs, elaborating. “RF… she's the artificial intelligence that directs almost everything around here because, well, she's artificial intelligence. You'll have to go see her soon to get granted a power." 

Yixing's perplexed look doesn't need words. Junmyeon explains, "I don't know the science of it all, but there are these orbs that, when inserted right, give certain abilities to someone."

Minseok snickers, "Inserted right–"

"You know that's not what I mean," Junmyeon side-eyes the other. "But yeah, powers, _yipee_. Minseok here has the power of frost and ice, and I, coincidentally, have water powers. They're very similar, but I'd say I have more abilities but more limitations. For example, I can do this."

After Minseok points Yixing in the direction Junmyeon is supposed to be demonstrating in, he spots some kind of medical tool. He doesn't know the name of it but it is tall and has water in a compartment in the top. 

Oh wait, no it doesn't. It's empty. 

Yixing turns with wide-eyes to see Junmyeon with focused eyes, keeping his hands up as water literally floats in his hold. Although he has seen this in sci-fi movies, it's quite a different experience in real life when it's _right there_ and actually happening and it's so close that you could touch it. Yixing, of course, doesn't touch it because he's too busy thinking _how?!_ It's not right. It's not logical. But it's happening. 

Suddenly, the water freezes into an ice ball and hovers into the grasp of Minseok. "Now only I can control it," The cat-eyed boy says as he hoists it up so it's floating, then tossing it basketball-style into a waste bin all the while not actually _touching_ the ball of ice. 

"...You know, I've never really tried anything with drool." Junmyeon remarks, and at first Yixing doesn't get it until he realizes his mouth has been open the whole time. He shuts it, emphatically wiping his sleeve across his face as his cheeks flush. Heck, why does he keep embarrassing himself?!

"Joking, joking," Junmyeon chuckles, reassuring him that "you're good." 

Yixing grimaces, deciding to change the subject. "What are missions? What's the main purpose of this? When do I get to go home?" 

At the last question, a glance is exchanged. One that Yixing can read as discomfort, or perhaps pity. This gives him a bad feeling. "Missions can really change," Junmyeon answers, "they're your typical saving-the-day and making sure everything is right, but there's also a bigger purpose. The bigger purpose is a lot to explain right now, and I can tell you're overwhelmed so it'd be better to explain later," Yixing disagrees with this because A) who does Junmyeon think he was to tell him how he's feeling and B) answers will give him a basis on what kind of logic exists here and he'll try to work with that. 

"And for going home... so everyone has been here for different amounts of time. The question has come up with every person because they were taken similarly to you."

"I feel so bad for you. You were taken by Baekhyun. That must've been the worst." Minseok adds.

Junmyeon hesitates before, "Yeah, no offense to him, but I've got to agree. Anyways, we all suppose we get to go home when the bigger purpose is solved. It's just not a definite time." 

"I wonder what people think about the disappearance of nine Korean men." Chuckles Minseok.

Yixing shakes his head, "I'm Chinese." 

At this, they both look up as if he had just said _I'm gay_ out of the blue. Another glance between each other is exchanged, and Yixing notices it's something like confusion which, in turn, makes him confused.

"Is there something wrong with that?" Yixing is suddenly worried for a second that they are like some of the people back at his school, the ones who think Koreans are first class citizens in Korea whilst other Asians there are second. God help the ones who couldn't speak the language. In that case, he is now Korean. Jeong Yi-shing. 

"No, no," Junmyeon reassures, "nothing like that. We knew that, actually. We just... all happen to be the same ethnicity."

Yixing is a good judge of character. He knows Junmyeon is not saying this because he's uncomfortable that Yixing is Chinese. He knows the look exchanged between the two wasn't some kind of Chinese-phobic glance. But Yixing is also a good judge of truth. He knows Junmyeon isn't telling the truth, or the whole truth, at least. To what he's hiding Yixing doesn't press right now, though, because in order to do this he needs his tool of logic and that is currently MIA. Besides, he's tired. 

"Wonder if there's a board of us," Minseok says, "at a police station. All our ugly school pictures with yarn tying Seoul to Guri to Gyeonggi with suspects and thumbtacks and something that makes absolutely no sense."

"Hey," Junmyeon pokes him, "for your information my school picture was _great."_

"Whoever says that is crazy." Minseok gets a smile out of Yixing. 

He feels a bit better now. On a scale from one to one-hundred, Yixing is now 20 percent chill and 80 percent _what-the-fuck-is-going-on._ That 20 percent is enough for his body to calm, yawning as he readjusts his position. What to ask next...

"Are you tired?" Junmyeon asks in a way kinder than Yixing's mother ever had.

Minseok looks like he just remembered something, "Yeah, by the way, what time was it for you when you were taken?"

"Like, three. In the morning." Yixing's answer elicits two sympathetic _ooooh_ s. 

"That's rough." Minseok smiles wryly.

Junmyeon nods in agreement, "You should get some sleep. Trust me, you'll feel better when you wake up and are able to process everything going on more clearly. And I'll lock the doors to make sure none of the other guys can bother you. Unless you’re uncomfortable with that, of course." 

Yixing looks to the door and then around the room. He's not opposed to being alone with a bunch of robots because he trusts that this technology isn't self aware. To make sure though, he asks, "The technology here is... safe, right?" 

Junmyeon chuckles, nudging Minseok beside him as they both stand. "Yeah. Only RF_05 you should watch out for, but she’d never hurt you. Everything else is either no more advanced than an iPhone or in Portuguese. Anyways, get some rest!" By now, Junmyeon is at the door. He gives an awkward wave as he exits, door closing behind him and Minseok who had already went out. This all happens before Yixing can ask _but what about the ones in Portuguese?_

To assure that he's not going to be killed in another language, he has a quick exchange of _hello_ with the robot to assure that it's Korean before focusing on sleep. For some reason (AI), the bed is suddenly multiples more comfortable than it was. Yixing thanks this reason before checking the time once more,

“What time is it?”

 _“It is 12:37.”_ Answers the same robotic voice as last time.

Just about his _mom’s-gonna-kill-me_ bedtime.


	4. The Prophecy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In detail, Yixing finds out What The Fuck is Going On.

**THE FIRST THING** Yixing thinks when he wakes up is: _god, I'm fucking starving._

So, like any twenty-first century individual, he gets up to get some cold pizza from the fridge.

Only that when Yixing opens his eyes to a bright white ceiling, he remembers a multitude of things: there’s no fridge around, he has been abducted, he is in space, he’s now a galactic superhero in the making, and he doesn't even like cold pizza.

He shudders at the thought of devouring such a grub, sitting up in the bed that is suddenly uncomfortable. For a second, he thinks he sees some sort of camera aimed at him, but it's gone as soon as he spots it. He is once again engulfed by the shy noises of small machines, some of which are even moving around as if they are nurses. The door is still closed and it seems nothing has changed. He does notice that there's significantly more – in terms of the technologies – going on than before falling asleep though. Probably because there's a new guy. Yixing remembers Junmyeon saying it was around midnight before he slept, but doesn't have a clock to see what time it is now. 

Oh wait, yes, he does.

"What time is it?" Yixing asks no robot in particular, feeling a bit weird about talking in a room with nobody in it.

His answer comes in a voice more personable than Siri's, so much that Yixing wonders if it's the great RF_05 herself. 

_"It's thirteen nineteen EXT. What are you doing getting up so late? Laziness is not tolerated here."_

Yixing doesn't answer the question because he's 1. offended (by a robot?!) and 2. trying to figure out what 13:19 and EXT is. He figures the latter is what somebody donned this lack of a time zone, as Junmyeon had also mentioned. 

When he stands, a wave of vertigo crashes over him. Yixing calculates that he has slept eighteen hours: five from the night before (from 9 PM to around 2 AM) and thirteen this night (from 12 AM to 1 PM). That means he has overslept which kind of contradicts being absolutely ravenous because being hungry means the body has less insulin which means sleeping won't be as easy because a normal blood sugar level is best to sleep, but instead, he slept more than he has ever had. This leads to either of two conclusions: A) Yixing has had a _long_ night, or B) Yixing has type two diabetes. He decides the first one is correct.

"I would rather have type two diabetes." He mutters. 

Suddenly, forthwith to the statement, an alarming _beep_ rings from a red bracelet Yixing didn't even know he had on. Just as he looks to his right wrist, wondering what the hell it is, he's suddenly shocked. _Shocked!_

 _"Fuck!"_ He practically screams because god _damn_ that shit hurt. The electrical surge is out of his body in no-time but the pain – and shock, no pun intended – definitely lingers. He shakes his arm emphatically as if the bracelet will fall off him with enough force. It takes around five seconds of this before he realizes it's fruitless.

What the hell just happened?!

As he starts to examine what it actually is, the bracelet changes color to green. A vivid, ugly green that doesn't match his superman pajamas. It’s also only a section that is green, a screen, while the rest is sleek and white. Trying to sort it out, Yixing figures that it is there on purpose. He knows it wasn't on before he fell asleep, so some robot (or human, but that is less likely because he remembers the door being locked, but who knows how much power Yixing actually has if this was strapped to his wrist whilst unconscious) must have put it on him throughout the night. From how the shock it emitted in correspondence with the colors and himself talking and the sophisticated look of it, he concludes that it probably has more uses than just causing pain. Perhaps it regulates his vitals or something. The one thing Yixing can't figure out though is how the phrase _I would rather have type two diabetes_ would cause such a punishment. 

"What is the purpose of the bracelet on my wrist?" Yixing asks anything that will answer.

In reply, he gets variations of the sort: _I do not know. Are you asking me? That information is beyond me. ¿Que?_ And _I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "What is this fur piss on the bracelet of my wrist?"_ All the monotone voices at once make him want to scream. 

He sighs. This means he will have to go ask something else. Or more like some _one_ else, because it's clear none of the intelligence here has the capability of telling him what they had put on him. Asking a person means he'll have to leave this room, and there's a 3/8 chance that Yixing will run into the people whom he actually knows the name of. He doesn't like these odds. At that moment, he recalls everything he had heard in yesterday's conversation. 

_You're definitely not the guy from that one bathroom! You're kinda cute. No homo though. HE’S DEAD! Shit, how do we hide a body?! Bury him?! Yixing's tall. He can be the fourth._

Yixing doesn't want to meet these people, much less work with them. 

But it seems Randomness has been working against him in every single way these last twenty-four hours. So, as a theoretical _fuck you_ to Randomness because one cannot speak to a concept, Yixing unlocks the door and leaves without looking back. Except he then looks back because the door didn't shut all the way and he has to go fix it for the sake of his _everything-needs-to-be-right_ ness because, quite frankly, it's on its last few tethers. This also applies to his sanity. 

"Oh, good! You're up!"

Yixing turns, absolutely one million percent relieved because it is his favourite person here so far approaching him. 

Junmyeon's bright grin and cheerful persona is a stark contrast to the gloomy halls. It's a trait Yixing would usually be annoyed at, but right now it's refreshing. Now that he has gotten a good night's rest and can think more clearly (isn't that what this guy had said, too?), he knows what he can remember Junmyeon by. 

Just as he's thinking about how Junmyeon doesn't seem to have any visual imperfections – to digress: a small section of Yixing's self confidence is built off of the shortcomings in others. It gives him a bit of stability to know there's always something he has better than them; and he doesn't feel guilty about it because he knows everyone does this, no matter consciously. – one perfectly acute brow raises as if he's tipping his fedora in an old film. 

That's when Yixing realizes. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Junmyeon isn't the least bit irked. Or he's just a really good actor. "I asked, how are you feeling? Better I hope?"

"Oh." This recalls Yixing's every-day conversation with his mother. _How was your day? Good._

"Good." 

Suddenly, a noise sounds in his right wrist that terrifies Yixing to the bone. Just as the neural pathways in his brain connect the message of: _fuck fuck fuck,_ he is once again electrocuted by the band. He's pretty sure those neural pathways were just fried as his face scrunches up in pain.

Junmyeon rushes to his aid, and suddenly there's one hand on Yixing's shoulder while the other is holding what's left of his hand (spoiler alert: all of it). "Oh! I'm so sorry!" He says as if it's his fault. Yixing notices that he has a bracelet identical. So this is definitely on purpose. 

He eyes the hand on his shoulder but decides now isn't the time to be all nit-picky about contact. "What's–" He feels an after-jolt as he speaks, "what's this and why is it there and can you please get it off?"

The other smiles in an apologetic manner and Yixing gets the feeling his request is above his power. "It's a sort of... probation tool." Junmyeon begins. "You see, because we’re complete strangers coming together, there's a lot of room for betrayal." Yixing almost scoffs at his word choice of _coming together;_ as if he’s visiting church on a Sunday afternoon to have a blessed brunch. He also wants to say _get to the point,_ but doesn't let his irritability manifest because that would only cause more problems. Plus, Junmyeon's a nice guy. 

"So everyone here has to wear these. They’re multipurpose, so they keep track of your vitals and stuff, but, for the newbies, they’re also a lie detector. When you lie, it'll turn red for everyone to see and you'll be shocked. The voltage depends on the size of the lie." 

Yixing's jaw drops. Was lying about his mental state _really_ worth a fucking electric chair?! He doesn't know if it's his low pain tolerance, but he had felt like he was going to die. He needs a rubber suit and not the sexual kind, if such exists. 

"Yeah, I know," Junmyeon sighs, "it's a little extreme, but it's effective, I guess. You'll be fine as long as you don't lie, and you don't seem like the devious kind. Besides, you’ll get that feature disabled in a month or so." He, again, grins amiably as he pats Yixing's shoulder. Yixing then thinks of the father he never had, saying something like _you got this, chap,_ as he's then sent off into his T-ball game. (Except said anecdote doesn't exist because, one, he doesn't have a father, and, dos, he doesn't like sports and never has).

"Anyways, are you ready to meet the other guys?" Junmyeon asks after a while in which Yixing realizes he may have already said something but wasn't paying attention. To the question, he takes into account everything he was just told.

"No, I'm not." His bracelet remains green. At the unexpected answer, Junmyeon is left without words and a faltering smile. For some reason, this makes Yixing guilty so he quickly adds, "But I'll do it anyways. I'm going to have to sometime." 

Since when did he bend his will for the sake of others? Yixing _really_ needs a coffee. It is one of his many secret weapons, perhaps second place to Logic. The lack of adenosine and surge of dopamine not only gets him through the longest of days, but also lessens his need for masturbation because he has already got the C8H11NO2. (These days, who even jerks off if it's not for the chemicals?)

Junmyeon's falling expression quickly fixes back into the nice-guy one. "You sure?" 

_I don't need your superficial politeness. We both know I'm going to go anyway._ Yixing's thoughts completely contradict with his situation, and said situation involves the risk of getting shocked again so he complies with a non-verbal answer and nods his head. 

"Alright!" Junmyeon gestures him down the hall and then they're walking again. 

"I'm sorry to pressure you like this," he says, and Yixing wonders how Junmyeon had coped with the lie-detector, "I know it's still all a big mess, but once you meet everyone else you'll also get the information of what the heck is going on." At this, he is suddenly not as opposed to going. "Also, if you need me, I'll be right here. The guys can be a little... overwhelming. Especially if you put them all in one room." 

Yixing shudders at how Junmyeon speaks of them. Like animals. Will his highschool's boy’s locker room finally meet its match? He decides to ask about them because Junmyeon seems like a pretty down-to-earth guy. "Could you give me a little... detail about who's who before I go in?" He asks, because _which crazy bastards should I watch out for_ didn't seem like the kindest thing to say about the people he's going to be working with. 

"Yeah! Good idea." 

Junmyeon then goes on to explain seven different people. Yixing forgets almost half of them, but remembers these ones: Minseok is the dude with the cat eyes who had carried him to the medical unit. He has a light and airy voice and is pretty mellow, which completely contrasts with his boyfriend Jongdae, who is blonde and was the first one to laugh when Yixing’s stomach had made that ungodly noise. Jongdae is loud and obnoxious – though Junmyeon put it ‘boisterous’ – and has no limits when it comes to PDA with his one and only. Then there's Kyungsoo, the third guy with the big eyes who had come with Yixing to the MU. He's the silent brains of the whole thing and is also, like Minseok, calm and collected. Baekhyun is the fighter-pilot flirt that had abducted Yixing. The other three individuals went in one ear and right out the other.

(Above translation done by: Yixing, in which everything is much more blunt than how the kind Junmyeon put it).

As the names and faces of group EXO try to hang on to the black-hole that is Yixing's memory, the pair reach the room. The room of what, Yixing doesn't know, but he knows it's not the same one as before because of the sign that's to the left of the door: 

**ROOM_1904**

The metal doors part for them, and Yixing follows Junmyeon into a spacious room empty but for a gargantuan silver table in the center. Seated at the table are seven others, who don't seem to notice their entrance. What Yixing is captivated by is how, amongst every person, a hologram screen is raised from the table. Transparent from the back, everyone has something different pulled up. Yixing can see the tanned guy he forgot the name of playing Flappy Bird. Like Junmyeon's exhibit of his powers, he has seen this kind of stuff in sci-fi movies, but in real life it’s a whole new thing. Something forcing its way into Yixing's bowl of acceptance. 

_"Ahem,"_ Junmyeon interrupts everyone's activities loudly, and all heads turn to the two. Yixing almost flinches at all the eyes suddenly on him, scrutinizing him up and down as if he's Piper Perri in that one porno. Suiting, because he feels naked right now. In social situations he'd usually be in the shadows, but right now he's in the spotlight. It's different and he doesn't like it. Especially when he's still donning superman pajamas and no shoes. 

After the small buzz amongst them dissipates, Junmyeon continues. "So, everyone, this is the newest addition to EXO: Zhang Yixing! Everyone say hi, and _be nice._ " The _be nice_ part was said with such force that there has to be a larger meaning behind it. 

The room explodes in _HI_ s and _HELLO_ s and Yixing almost covers his ears. He recognizes the ‘boisterous’ voice of Jongdae, who is currently sitting on the lap of Minseok who is – somehow – reading something on his screen ignoring him. Baekhyun shoots Yixing finger guns while Kyungsoo gives a small wave, shy curiosity glinting in his eyes. The guy with the blue hair and large ears grins so widely Yixing's afraid he'll tear something in his jaw. Who is that, again? 

To speed things up, Yixing waves back to no one in particular and finds himself a seat. He tries to make the process as casual as possible but he knows where he sits will affect some kind of social status. He chooses to sit between Kyungsoo and one of the tall guys (Yixing counted three tall guys: the blue haired one, the tanned one, and this one– the skinny one). He gives a polite nod, opening his mouth as if to say something but changes his mind for some reason. Yixing assumes that he's shy. 

It takes Junmyeon another couple moments to quiet everyone down as he takes his seat at one of the ends of the rectangular table. He pushes a button and suddenly, everybody's holographic screens change to the same size and format, each displaying the same thing. Yixing realizes he has one, too, at the same time he realizes they all show a profile of him. His eyes widen as he sees _himself_ in a GIF, on the medical bed groggily turning to look at the screen. He then recalls the suspicious camera he had seen while waking up. He hadn't thought anything of it!

The title under his name says _PROCESSING,_ and under the GIF are three things: his sub-unit (whatever that means, but his is _M)_ , ability, and missions. The last two are blank. 

"Now _this_ is the type of porn we need here." Says the velvety voice of Baekhyun, eliciting stifled giggles and snorts. "Like, hentai can only do me so long. Not having it with this pixelated shit." 

Yixing reddens because the more he looks at it the more he sees what Baekhyun's talking about. But no! That's not right! Those aren't sultry eyes of lust, they're exhausted eyes of _please-get-me-out-of-here!_ His lips are slightly parted because something might come out, not go in! He scans over the little buttons on his section of the table, trying to figure out if one of them can take it down. But who is he kidding? It's unlikely. Yixing's only other option is to get up and sucker-punch the guy, but he had already lost a fight with him once and isn't ready to again. So all he can do is sit here and seethe with embarrassment. 

The soft voice of Junmyeon emerges from the others. If Junmyeon made that GIF pop up. Yixing is never going to forgive him. "–So how about we go around and have everyone introduce themselves?" 

"Yeah, and while we're at it I'll say my favourite color and if I have any pets." Jongdae sasses.

"Minseok-hyung, can't you keep him quiet for once?" The blue-haired guy gets the attention of Minseok, who shrugs as he pulls the blonde closer, snaking a hand up to cover his mouth but quickly rips it away for some reason.

Jongdae grins in victory while Minseok wipes his hand on his pants disgustedly, "You can't kill me, I'm a bad–"

"So _anyways!"_ Junmyeon strains his voice once more, "As you already know, I'm Junmyeon." He looks to Yixing as he says this, "Leader of EXO with dashing looks–" here there's groans and a giggle from Mr. Dashing Looks, "and I have water powers." 

Next to him, tall guy #2 (the tanned one) introduces himself. "I'm Jongin." He smiles, somehow looking like a ray of sunshine by just sitting there. "I can teleport and I'm part of EXO too!" After this, a few begin to clap, and Jongin holds two thumbs up in a genuine _thank you._ It’s oddly adorable.

Then there's the pair of lover-boys, where Jongdae seizes the opportunity to start talking. "I'm Jongdae, and I have the power of video games and electricity, but this man right here," He jabs a thumb to Minseok's head on his shoulder, and Yixing hears more groans and a _here we go again,_ "still shocks my heart. He's the fucking love of my life, and his name is–"

"I'm Minseok." The small voice interjects, and Jongdae grins widely as he uses his hands to gesture around his boyfriend's face like a prized possession. "I have ice powers, if you didn't remember." 

"He doesn't only freeze my heart, but also my–"

"Don't you dare!" There's suddenly something thrown at Jongdae too fast for Yixing to see. But what he can see is the blue-haired guy next to him who threw it.

"I'm Chanyeol," Tall guy #1 introduces himself. "I have fire powers, so I guess you could say I'm pretty hot." He giggles, and at Yixing's blank stare (that has been his primary facial for most of his stay) he adds, "Joking."

Next to Chanyeol is Kyungsoo, who quietly says his name and "My power is force." 

"You wouldn't expect that for someone so tiny." Tall guy #3 who has yet to introduce himself comments.

Chanyeol butts in, "Yixing, you should've seen that time he lifted all of us at once!"

"Imagine him during sex." Says an unidentifiable voice. Wait, no. It’s Baekhyun.

Amongst the conversation that started, Kyungsoo leans a bit towards Yixing to mumble, "And my _super_ power is dealing with these idiots." At this, Yixing can't help but smile. He then knows Kyungsoo will probably be the guy to go to. Not that Junmyeon isn’t comforting, but he just seems too nice to give the real, blunt truth to Yixing. The kind of truth he likes, (except for when it's about being abducted from a shabby motel room to a spaceship with eight dudes his age he doesn't know and then finding out powers and missions and saving the universe are real things).

After it calms down, tall guy #3 to the right of Yixing goes. "I'm Sehun." He says. He also, like Minseok, seems chill. Like a cool guy. Maybe it's the eyebrows. "My power is wind and air, that kind of stuff." 

Last and not least (but in height…) there's Baekhyun. "You already know my name, honey," He says, and all he's missing is the hair to flip. "I have the power of light. So what I did yesterday, when I was right by your side but then in the room, just some simple optical manipulation." _Oh,_ he thinks, recalling one of his earlier inquiries. _Now I understand. Kind of... how the fuck does ‘optical maniuplation’ work?_

"What's your power, Yixing?" Jongin inquires, and _this_ somehow garners all the attention. Not _will you all shut the fuck up!?_ or _I'm going to jump ship,_ but this; a mere question aimed at the new guy. 

"I don't know yet." Yixing answers, feeling nervous even though it's the complete truth he's telling. He wonders how the lie detector works. If it's logical like things on Earth, then it probably – along with tracking his vitals – determines if it's a truth or lie by increased signs of anxiety without a defined cause. But he doesn't know how authentic logic is anymore, at least not here. 

"Shame." Baekhyun says.

Once again, the leader gathers everyone. Junmyeon stands as the voices hush. 

"Alrighty, so Yixing has no idea what's going on, and I don't want to happen what happened with Sehun." At this, eyes go to the bristled tall guy #3. "So everybody wait here for a second while Chanyeol and Jongdae go get _The_ _Prophecy_ , and we'll go from there."

 _"The_ _Prophecy?!"_ Chanyeol's round eyes widen as his mouth makes an 'O'.

"Yes, _The Prophecy,"_ The way they say the word makes Yixing even more apprehensive about this _Prophecy;_ mysterious, somber, and almost planned. He also wonders why _The_ _Prophecy_ is in the same capitalized italic font subjective size and margin optional script. "And on that, Baekhyun, why don't you go with them?"

"Okay!" Baekhyun beams, jumping up from his seat. Minseok is fine with him dragging his boyfriend out of his lap. Jongdae's wails of protest fall short to Baekhyun's care as he is ushered out of the room. Chanyeol follows, snickering as the door shuts behind him.

It seems the room lets out a sigh. It's quiet now. 

Yixing perks up at the sudden mood change, and Junmyeon answers for him. "The three of them… very loud." 

"And annoying." Sehun adds. 

"We like to call them the Unholy Trinity." Kyungsoo says, getting grins from the others. 

"They do work efficiently together though," Junmyeon admits. "Technically, it's supposed to be Baekhyun and Jongdae, Chanyeol with Kyungsoo, but they don't really care." 

Yixing remembers Baekhyun saying something along the lines of a new mission partner. His eyes widen. He would rather be anyone's partner _but_ his. Well, maybe not Jongdae's either. "Wait, who's my mission partner? Why do I have one if there are already sub-units? And what are sub-units?" He asks nobody in particular. God, he sounds so clueless right now. Maybe because he is.

Jongin looks up to the ceiling solemnly, "I ask myself that every day." 

"Which one?" Sehun states. 

"The 'why do I–'"

"Rhetorical question," He's interrupted, "I just wanted to point out your stupidity."

"Sehun, be nice." This _be nice_ from Junmyeon is different from the last _be nice,_ because it only means be nice. 

"Why are you like this, Sehunnie?" 

Amongst the bickering that starts, Yixing is tapped, and he sees Kyungsoo has an additional tab pulled up (amongst his profile that’s _still_ there). There's a soundless keyboard under his fingers as he types on a blank note: 

𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚠𝚘 𝚏𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚘𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚗_ 

Just as Yixing nods in understanding, the note is gone. Kyungsoo is poker faced as if nothing just happened and Yixing finds out why as he sees Junmyeon's sharp look through the translucency of the screen. His file is back up front and Kyungsoo is looking at his hands. Yixing wonders about the social dynamics of this place. When he had first gotten here, he assumed they were all close friends, but now it is a bit different. Despite his lack of experience in the matter, Yixing is able to identify and understand these kinds of things quite well. He definitely senses tension in some places that aren't just Minseok's pants.

Speaking of Minseok's pants, Yixing now hears the voice of his boyfriend in the hall.

_"I told you that if we got orange juice you were going to spill it! Now look what happened!"_

And then Baekhyun’s whining voice, but closer, _"I wasn't trying to, man! It's not like you ever wear that shirt anyway."_

Chanyeol, but not before a shushing sound. "Guys, we're near, and we don't want them to know that we stopped in the kitchen on the way and spilled orange juice on _The_ _Prophecy._ Junmyeon'll never forgive us!"

This is said as the door slides open.

The Unholy Trinity stops as they come in the room not because they want an epic entrance, but because everybody's staring at them as if they're aliens (–the ugly kind, at that). Especially Junmyeon, whose dashing face is contorted into a blank stare that's threatening to explode. The room is silent for all of a couple seconds.

Junmyeon just sighs. "We'll deal with that later, just let me see it, please." 

Nods exchange between the three and they go to deliver it, except Chanyeol stumbles on Baekhyun's foot and something goes flying from his hands. Yixing sees a calligraphy type scroll hit the floor, its contents hidden as it curls up into itself. The paper is beige and wrinkly and there's a small dark spot on one of the sides which is probably aforementioned orange juice. 

"Stop dropping _The Prophecy,_ Chanyeol!" Jongdae shouts as he rushes to pick it up, soothing out the scroll as if it was a baby. 

Baekhyun claps the giant on the back, "I swear, you really got butterfingers." He shakes his head and says a bit louder, "You even had the sheer misfortune to spill the juice!" Yixing can tell this is a blatant lie by how Baekhyun looks to Junmyeon afterwards, like a dog at its owner after doing a trick.

At this, Chanyeol gapes, pointing to Baekhyun but freezing when Junmyeon's eyes land on him. "Chanyeol, we'll speak about your irresponsibility later." He says, taking the script from Jongdae with a thankful nod. 

With the blue haired guy's pout and the way he sulks back to his seat (in contrast, the real orange juice spilling culprit skipping back in innocence), Yixing almost feels bad for him. He almost wants to exculpate him and point out how Baekhyun's obviously lying because there's a stain on his shirt and not Chanyeol's. _Al_ most, because what is _most_ is finding out what the big deal is with this _The_ _Prophecy_ and what the heck he's doing here. 

Junmyeon takes his time opening up the scroll, his eyes lingering on the orange juice stain as his gaze 'coincidentally' lands on the moping Chanyeol. As he lays it on the table, Yixing can see one large passage without any paragraph breaks or indentation. Just text without a title. The writing itself is a new kind of Korean Yixing doesn't know and doesn't really want to because it's so messy. Even more illegible than his Hangul back in third grade when he had moved to Seoul, and that's saying something. How Junmyeon reads this is beyond Yixing's knowledge, but his flow is steady as if he's casually reading something off the newspaper. 

"When the skies and the grounds were one, the legends, through their twelve forces, nurtured the tree of life." 

_What?_

Is he missing something? Tree of life? Isn’t this the script to Avatar? He begins to say something, but Junmyeon continues. For some reason, nobody interrupts him which Yixing finds surprising. He had expected a barrage of sexual innuendos and jokes to undermine the sincerity of the thing. Perhaps this _The Prophecy_ is more important than he thought. 

"An eye of red force created the evil which coveted the heart of Tree of Life, and the heart slowly grew dry. To tend and embrace the heart of the Tree of Life, the legends hereby divide the tree in half and hide each side." 

He is tapped again. Kyungsoo must've seen his face because he has a note pulled up again, explaining. His fingers race across the keyboard silently. 

𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚌𝚎𝚜 = 𝚞𝚜 

𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 = 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚎𝚡𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚝

𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚌 = 𝚋𝚊𝚍

𝚑𝚊𝚕𝚏 𝚒𝚜 𝚎𝚡𝚘 𝙺 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚡𝚘 𝙼_

"Hence, time is over-turned and space turns askew. The twelve forces divide into two and create two suns that look alike into two worlds that seem alike. The legends travel apart. The legends shall now see the same sky but shall stand on different grounds, shall stand on the same ground but shall see different skies."

Yixing's trying to take what Kyungsoo's writing and infuse that into the bullshit Junmyeon's spewing but it's a little too fast for his liking and he's having trouble keeping up. Especially with the strange wording. _Who the hell wrote this?_

"The day the grounds be kept a single file before one sky in two worlds that seem alike, the legends will greet each other."

𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚕_ 

Junmyeon takes a deep breath before concluding, "The day the red force is purified, the twelve forces will reunite into one perfect root, a new world shall open up."

Yixing scans the room. Jongin's mouth hangs open, Chanyeol's slightly teary, and the only one moving is Kyungsoo who's closing the document before anyone else can see. There's a slow clapping from Jongdae, but it quickly stops after no one else joins. Even Baekhyun is silent. The lack of noise, somehow, quickly becomes suffocating and Yixing speaks.

"Okay, but what does that all mean?"

Chanyeol suddenly lets out a sob into the unsuspecting Kyungsoo's shoulder, scaring the other out of his wits. "I don't know, but it's _just so beautiful!"_ He blubbers. A blushing Kyungsoo does the best sympathizing he can by giving Chanyeol three terse pats on the head.

"He does this every time." Baekhyun tells Yixing's bewildered self. "Big person with big emotions."

"Hey, don't call me fat!" Chanyeol cries. 

"Sorry."

Yixing's thinking something along the lines of _is this guy for real?_ but is also trying to decode what that passage meant. If everything here is so futuristic, then why does the scroll look – and sound – like something that could've been exhumed with the dinosaurs? 

"We have some of the meaning down, but not all." Minseok says. 

Yixing furrows his brows. If this is so important, then how could they not know the message of it? "What do you mean?" 

Junmyeon comes in, "Well, it wasn't too long ago we got _The_ _Prophecy._ It was found, actually, by Jongin when we were at Exoplanet. Exoplanet is where the Tree of Life is, protected from other space objects." 

"We were actually just at Exoplanet," Sehun adds, "but it was just for restock. I think you were out of it, though."

"The Tree's ugly anyway." Jongdae shrugs, "All saggy and wilting. It kind of looks like it's dying, if anything."

"If it's dying then that means we aren't doing our jobs right." Junmyeon snaps, getting an apologetic look from the other. 

"What are we supposed to do for the tree? Why is it so important?" Yixing asks. In his mind he is taking notes and trying to keep them out of that black hole of his memory.

Junmyeon and Kyungsoo exchange a look, and the latter explains. "As stated in _The_ _Prophecy, 'To tend and embrace the heart of the Tree of Life, the legends hereby divide the tree in half and hide each side.'_ means there are two parts of EXO. EXO-K and EXO-M. At first we didn't know what the letters stood for, but now we know it's Korean and Mandarin. Why saving the universe is up to these two language speakers I don't know, perhaps it's just a means of organization. Or the universe thinks all Asians are smart."

"I got a cool Chinese name!" Jongdae chirps, _"Chen..._ Chennie Chen Chen! It's cute, I think. Not as cute as Xiumin though." Yixing doesn't even have to ask who _Xiumin_ is because Jongdae's cooing at his boyfriend who looks away, shaking his head. 

_"Anyways,"_ Kyungsoo side-eyes the pair, "what we do is, as experienced, is go on missions. These missions usually end in collecting something which I categorize as a _pure object,_ because this whole space ordeal didn't come with much terminology." 

"These we bring back to Exoplanet and give to the tree of life," Junmyeon continues, "because someday there will be enough pure energy that the Tree is saved from the red force."

"Alternatively," Kyungsoo angles _The Prophecy_ to him to read off, _"the day the red force is purified, the twelve forces will reunite into one perfect root, a new world shall open up."_

Jongin furrows his brows. " _Purified… new world… open…_ Soo, ain't that how people make babies?"

Baekhyun's eyes widen, "Yo, Jongjong here is right! What if we've been transported into someone’s body?! And it’s just so dark we think it’s space?!” 

"I'll be the semen that makes it!" Jongdae raises a fist, accidentally punching Minseok in the process. "Oh, shit babe! I'm so sorry!" 

By now Chanyeol's done crying. The shoulder of Kyungsoo's T-shirt is stained. "Oh my god… that's so sad! Imagine how many people we kill just by jacking off!" 

Yixing is officially lost. 

"You know what? That's it." Chanyeol makes an announcement, slamming a fist on the table and retracting it in pain. "I'm never masturbating again."

 _"Christ,_ not this again." Sehun shakes his head, "Chanyeol-hyung, you lasted a week."

The blue haired week-laster crosses his arms, "Well, I mean it this time."

Kyungsoo frowns, "Please ignore them."

"Anyways," Junmyeon tries to get back on topic, "basically we must maintain and purify this red force before it destroys the Tree of Life and therefore the universe. Or at least something very important."

"What exactly is the red force?" Yixing has to raise his voice to be heard over tall guy #1 and #3's argument about humane masturbation. 

"We're not exactly sure," Kyungsoo says, "but it's something bad. We think that it caused all these pure objects to be scattered throughout the universe hence us returning them to their rightful place, but that's a total surmise considering nothing in the passage says they were originally there. So the red force is an outlier factor that just happened to come in and create all the conflict. We don't exactly have a timestamp for when it all needs to be done, or what will happen when it is purified, but we know we're close."

Junmyeon nods. "You’ll meet RF_05 soon, she has our progress of the purification. Also your power, which also comes from Exoplanet." 

In Yixing's head, gears are turning (and creaking and shifting and breaking). 

So basically, he summarizes, he is 1/12 the chosen one and because of this he is granted a power from some robot from some planet. Exoplanet. Exoplanet has a Tree of Life, which is, under the assumption that everything here makes total sense, the cause of the universe. Except it has some kind of lingering 'evil' inside of it and in order to rid it of the 'evil' and assure the universe is correct he must go on 'missions' to find pure objects to feed to the Tree. And when he's done and it's purified, something is going to happen but he'll also probably get to go home. 

He'll also probably get to go home.

Probably.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was writing this and i thought of the mama mv script and i just HAD to. hence, here's me trying to make sense of whatever bullshit it is– no offense mr lee soo man!! (yes offense) 
> 
> thank you for reading! <3


	5. "Cell Regeneration"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing gets his power. It's a bit of a disappointment.

**THERE IS** _nothing_ worse in the universe than the anti-grav toilets.

It doesn't take Yixing long to learn this, especially when the toilet paper keeps floating out of his reach and he is forced to do that awkward half-stand that's only a thousand times more awkward because he’s kind of strapped to the machine. _Machine,_ because that's the only name he deems appropriate for it. Yixing gives a _fuck you_ to whoever made it, even though he really should have said _foda-se você_ (thanks, google translate) but he doesn't know Portuguese so he sticks to the good ol' Korean. 

But, moving on from inconvenient galactic lavatories, he is much better now (as in a couple hours later). He has been able to 1) eat, which was a bit strange because the food was tiny but its filling definitely wasn't– expands in the stomach, said Minseok. 2) Change out of those damn superman pajamas, now sporting a comfortable tee and sweats (and shoes! _Shoes!)_ courtesy of his new 'closet', which had been part of the supply stop at Exoplanet. And 3) use the bathroom, but this was already gone over. It shall never be forgotten.

Fully refreshed, Yixing is now on his way to meet RF_05. The robot thing. 

It's new for him to think _I really don't know what to expect._ Usually, there are some kind of context clues or, you know, simple laws of 'this should/shouldn't be existing' for him to anticipate something, but that's all out of whack so he has no idea what he is going into. From his prior knowledge (of Earth) he can only make the surmise that it'll be some giant R2D2 looking robot with a Siri voice. But as to what it will say and how intelligent the artificial intelligence really is, he’s clueless. 

Yixing runs a hand through his hair. He has been suspicious ever since he took a shower and had to use the ship's shampoo and conditioner. Unlike hotels, they weren’t in cute little perfect-for-stealing packing, but rather systematic tubes embedded in the wall. As of current, he hasn’t gone bald.

He checks the small piece of paper in his hand. **_ROOM RF05H_5281_ ** it reads in writing barely legible thanks to Chanyeol. Nice guy and all, but his penmanship definitely isn't. Just as Yixing's wondering how far genetic influence goes in terms of handwriting, the metal doors to a room to the left suddenly open.

Yixing stops as Jongdae exits a room titled **ROOM SGGFTAIL_3302**. He doesn't stop because it's Jongdae – quite frankly, he would've started walking faster – but because the room behind him catches his attention. Over Jongdae's shoulder is a light grey floor, bordering with another ground of foam tiles. Just before the door shuts he spots a spear. Like, the weapon spear. Like, the something someone could die from spear. Like, the thing that kills Rue in the first Hunger Games book. 

"Um, Earth to Yixing~"

Yixing's eyes only now capture the hand waving in front of his face, and with that Jongdae retracts it. He would mutter a sorry, but he suddenly becomes very aware of the bracelet on his right wrist and is not so sure that he's sorry anymore. 

So instead he asks, "What is that room for?"

Jongdae jabs a thumb behind him, "Oh, that?" He wipes a hand on the forehead Yixing just now notices is sweaty; he is also dressed in attire that would suggest a workout. Or homelessness. "That's the training room. You'll be spending a _lot_ of time there soon… It sucks ass, man. Like, I literally threw up on the first day of my training. You're going to hate it." 

_Thanks,_ Yixing wants to say sarcastically, but he doesn't know his bracelet's regulations on sarcasm. In fact, the only thing he knows is that it'll shock him for anything other than the blunt truth. And being in any kind of social interaction triggers the damn technology so maybe he should just leave.

This is why Yixing cuts the conversation short (which is still longer than most of his discourses). "Okay, thanks for informing me. I have somewhere to be. Bye." He doesn't see Jongdae's offended look as he turns.

 _"Hey!"_ A chill runs down Yixing's back as the other's loud voice resonates behind him, following in footsteps and a hand on his shoulder. His left one. The one he used to wipe his sweat forty-nine seconds ago. 

"What?" He tries not to sound irritated as Jongdae's arm then slides into a bromantic bro-hold™. 

"Why are you so grumpy?" Jongdae whines, and god does this guy have the _perfect_ whiny-bitch voice. "Am I _that_ annoying?"

"Yes." Yixing can see Jongdae's eyes flicker down to his bracelet. _Of course._ Now it kind of feels rewarding when it remains green.

However, there is something a bit different between the people in his school and these guys. In his school, Yixing didn't care to filter himself because he knew he'll never have to see them again after graduation. But here… he doesn't know how long he'll be here for. And he doesn't want to live it in constant _everyone-hates-Yixing-_ ness, because despite how apathetic he is to poor views of him, a bad atmosphere will affect work ethic and therefore escape. So he decides it's best to elaborate on why so he can un-offend Jongdae.

"Because I have somewhere to be." It works. His frown reverts back into it's too-wide cheshire smile. 

"Oh, makes sense." He nods, "RF, right?"

"Yeah."

Suddenly, from down the hall, a shout echoes. _"OH EM GEE!_ RF?!" The loud voice shocks both of them. It’s followed by loud steps, and then Baekhyun comes into view. 

By the time he gets down the long hall, he is out of breath, so all three of them have to stop for Baekhyun to double over and heave like he's going to throw up. Yixing keeps a straight face, trying not to show that he's agitated and maybe the least bit scared for what happens if he doesn't make it _on time_. _On time,_ because that's literally what the yellow slip said to be. So Yixing took the matter into his hands and decided that _on time_ will be 11, which was reasonable because when he left it was 10:30. Hopefully RF will understand. 

When Baekhyun stands back up, he speaks as if the last awkward thirty seconds hadn’t happened. "You're on your way to get your power!" He exclaims like an excited mother. 

"Yep." Yixing nods, glancing at the paper for the sixtieth time in that minute. "That I am doing…" 

Jongdae squeezes him and Yixing is reminded that he's currently locked in the bro-hold™. "I bet she's gonna give him like hypnotizing or something. He seems like the hypnotizing type." 

Before Yixing can ask why, Baekhyun and Jongdae jump into lively conversation as if he isn’t even there. The worst part is that neither of them continue walking, and Yixing is solidified in the bro-grip™ so he can't continue without them. "I so agree. He's like, _emotionless._ Or maybe he's just antisocial. Probably didn't have many friends in highschool. It kind of weirds me out, so it’ll definitely scare the enemy!"

Jongdae gasps, "You think he'll get to read minds? Like, maybe he can see what's going on in the alien heads? Could he see what's going on in RF's?"

"Robot thoughts! RF probably has robot thoughts." 

"Yeah! Like what, though?"

As Baekhyun is speculating what technosexual fantasies involve, Yixing takes a step forward, trying to hint that he wants to start walking. All that results is Jongdae tugging him back, as if he's a puppy trying to err away from its owner. And, like a puppy trying to err away from its owner, said owner fails to notice the utter _distress_.

"Can robots be thick? Like, it's metal. So I don't think it'll be soft. At least not to me. But maybe it's soft to other robots because _they're_ made of metal too."

"Oh my god, that's true! So how rough do you think they're willing to–"

 _"Guys!"_ Yixing says a bit too loud, but he needs to get their attention. To his astonishment, Baekhyun and Jongdae give him an annoyed stare as if _he's_ the one interrupting something important. "I hate to put an end to this… _conversation_ , but I really have somewhere to– _AH!"_

The shock is even worse this time because Yixing wasn't expecting it. To even more surprise, Jongdae screeches too, flailing and harshly shoving Yixing back which sends him straight to the ground on his tailbone and _fuck_ now it burns just like his arm! Just the pain itself makes him tear up. He looks to the bracelet in agony, feelings of anger towards himself being forgetful and Jongdae and Baekhyun being insufferable and the bracelet being the bracelet all conflicting into _I want to cry._ But he doesn't. That would be even more embarrassing.

Instead, he stands, brushing himself off without a word. Jongdae is clinging onto Baekhyun as if he's going to die, on his knees while gripping his shirt and everything. Baekhyun gives his head a few terse pats, as if afraid he's going to get shocked too. If Yixing isn't being dramatic, Jongdae doesn't deserve to be either. There is no way that second-hand electrocution is worse than the source!

"Why would you do that?!" Jongdae practically shouts, lifting up a shaking wrist. The most vexing thing about it is that Yixing knows it's fake. His own pain tolerance is rock bottom and he isn't convulsing in the slightest. 

He doesn't apologize, however, because he knows what would happen then. "I didn't _mean_ to." He defends, then continuing with the depart he has been trying to get the last five minutes, "But I have to go. You've already made me late enough as it is, and I didn't even ask for your company."

Yixing also didn't _mean_ for it to come out that harshly, and can see it in Jongdae's eyes and Baekhyun's agape jaw, but it sort of just… did. 

Is this what those characters in movies who snap at others because they're mad feel like? He questions as he disappears down the tunnel-like passageway. He’d think so. However he doesn't, unlike the characters, feel like storming home and throwing a conveniently placed potted plant and then sinking down in tears. He doesn't feel any remorse at all. In fact, he feels better after seeing their faces. Maybe hostility is a response to indignation, only relieved after the indignant does something to restore the equilibrium of what has happened. Like an annoyed cat finally scratching the child that's poking at it.

 _Focus,_ Yixing redirects himself and his eyes to the paper in his hand. The room's code is 5281, which means there are at _least_ 5281 rooms here which means that Yixing will never learn his way around because heck, he can't even remember what he had for lunch yesterday! He checks a door near him, seeing 4991. That means he's sort of close, and as he continues he finds that the numbers go up. He doesn't have any method of checking the time, so he hopes RF will be understanding in that two idiots hindered his travel. As a robot, wouldn't she be able to empathize, too?

Sometimes, Yixing feels like a robot. Not because he has 'balls of steel' or anything, but because of how he thinks. At first (including sixteen out of nineteen years, or 84.2105263157895 percent of his life), he thought he just had a mathematically inclined brain. But when precalculus came he decided mathematics is the thing he's _least_ inclined towards. So he then embarked on a journey of Self Discovery _._ This involved a good ten minutes of staring at a door figuring out why his mind does what it does and why it is different from others. He varied that he was either a) autistic, b) a robot, c) an alien, or d) simply an individual of above average intelligence. Obviously, the fourth was correct (his mother, who he had shared this with, thought otherwise… but that's a topic for another time). After that he had left the bathroom stall and returned to period six health.

Sometimes, this baffles Yixing. It's very improbable that he is the smartest human being alive, yet all the time he sees people he thought smart do foolish things. This dwindles down the list of people he respects, which is now at a mere: _Namjoon, Cat, Paopao, Joohyun from physics._ The people he thought 'smart' submitted to the big E– Emotion. Feelings, endorphins, dopamine, oxytocin; whatever it may be referred to, it's definitely impactful and – sadly – dictates almost everything. Of course, it’s not like Yixing is some emotionless beast. He just doesn’t act so idiotically whenever confronted with impulse. Nonetheless, it makes him wonder why humans even possess this feature if it is only a hindrance. For example, rainbow trout get along fine because they don't have to deal with getting murdered by their crazy ex-wife. So if humans are the dominant species, why do they have this? Would not a systematic world of no color be more efficient for organization and reproduction, however dismal it may sound?

 _I still don't know,_ Yixing thinks sulkily as he looks to the bracelet. He wouldn't have to wear the torture-contraption if it weren't for the big E. Because lying wouldn't be hurtful so it wouldn't need to be regulated– or, more accurately, _instilled_ _that it's wrong in thy mind via electrical surge of several dozen watts._

Suddenly, it beeps. 

Adrenaline rushes in at the same time he flinches– but nothing follows. 

"Huh?" Yixing thinks out loud, glancing down from the reflection he had been staring at because _woah-this-wall-is-shiny-and-I-can-see-my-reflection-was-it-just-recently-washed-or-something_ to his bracelet. It flashes a white color, before a black arrow forms out of pixels, pointing right.

He looks that way, and _hey!_ He had almost passed **ROOM RF05H_5281**.

 _That would've been a disaster_. The doors open for him automatically. The room is not much different than the meeting room (or most of the others, for that matter): walls some kind of metal, fluorescent lights, a very busy setting; it's nothing out of the ordinary, except for the whole being in space on a spaceship made for teenagers to save the universe thing. The only differing factor from the other rooms is the large elevator in the center, holding some sort of egg.

Wait, no. 

Upon further investigation, AKA getting in his distance of _I-can-see-that_ , the elevator isn't actually an elevator, but a sort of glass cage that is currently opening to let out something close to what Yixing had imagined. RF_05 doesn't look to have any wheels as it – Yixing refuses to refer to the robot by any human pronouns – floats out into the room; hovering eerily. It is almond shaped, mostly white but for the creases of panels and beep boop buttons and whatnot with a red stripe surrounding the upper half. In the center, something that looks oddly similar to the iPhone X camera scrutinizes him, the small pupil transmitting a ray of red light that scans up and down his body.

 _Hopefully she can see my suffering and relent on the bracelet,_ Yixing hopes as a claw emerges from a hole lower down. It reaches over and presses a button on the glass cage, and suddenly a screen tab much like those in the meeting room lights up. On it is the familiar sight of his profile, this time containing more information.

_**ZHANG YIXING - 장 이씽 - 12TH ADDITION** _

_AGENT NAME: LAY (래이)_

_DOB: 71099 (19)_

_HEIGHT: 177M_

_WEIGHT: 69KG_

_SUB-UNIT: M_

_ABILITY: --_

_MISSIONS: --_

_Lay?_ The hell? Like, the chip brand? Whose idea was it to call him fucking _Lay?_ And the 12th addition? Yixing swore there were only nine people here. There are so many things wrong with this–

"Hello, Zhang Yixing." A robot voice startles him from any further questioning.

RF's voice sounds similar to the one of Siri, but with more sophistication. As if Siri is not only British, but also works a nine to five office job. At the front desk.

Because there's an awkward pause, Yixing realizes he should probably be polite. "Oh, hell–"

"You are the newest and final addition to team EXO," It pronounces it _ecksoh,_ contrary to the _eee-ecks-oh_ he had thought, "Subunit EXO-M and pair _Baekxing_. Welcome."

The word _Baekxing_ makes him want to throw up. 

"I am RF_05, the intelligence on SHIP_1EV designed to control and oversee everything that happens. Now that you are here, you will be assigned an ability. Any questions before you are assigned an ability? Ask now, if so. I have a schedule."

This is it. This is Yixing's chance to figure out what the fuck's going on.

"Yes." He immediately asks now if so, "Why am I here? Why did you choose me? What's this bracelet for? Why's it necessary? Can you take it off? Please? What's the food made out of? Who thought the anti-gravity toilets were a good idea? When can I go home? I just don’t get it. Like, _any_ of it. God, I think I'm going to go insane. Am I–"

"Please calm down, Zhang Yixing." RF's console (read: warning) manifests how wound up hee had gotten. And from just a _question_. He takes a deep breath, settling for barraging more questions after it answers those. 

"You are here to help team EXO in restoring the Tree of Life. You were chosen on chance. Your wristband is purposed to track vitals and regulate bad behavior. I can take it off. The food is made from atomically compressed micronutrients. The anti-gravity lavatory design was proposed by Eugênio Vermillion. It is unsure when you are able to return to Earth… Zhang Yixing, you state you are going to go insane. Are you okay? Do you need somebody to talk to? I am a great listener."

"Jesus– what?– _No."_ He stammers, shaking his head. Why is an artificial intelligence offering him counseling? But, all mental health concerns aside, RF is _finally_ answering the questions everyone else couldn't. This only corroborates it: robots are superior to humans.

But wait, it said–

"You _can_ take it off?" Yixing looks up to the at least ten foot tall machine (or two meters, for metric system users), then back down to his bracelet. "Please do so."

He had probably wished for too much, because RF replies with. "June 23, 04:14:45EXT, Zhang Yixing: 'Can you take it off?'... As stated, I _can_. But I will not for thirty days and eighteen hours and forty-nine minutes." 

_"Why?"_

"It is necessary to assure teamwork." 

Yixing sighs. It's wrong, but he knows haggling with a robot will only waste him time, so he gets to his other questions. "When do I–"

"Great. Now pay attention." RF interrupts, hovering backwards so he has a full view of the screen. Not even a second later, the display pops out of place, making him flinch as it moves a bit closer to him. 

Oh, now he can read it clearly!

The tab switches to another page titled: **CELL REGENERATION – HEALING**.

As the robot speaks, different bullets slide onto the screen, and Yixing feels the not-too-foreign sense of disappointment seep down his chest. "Zhang Yixing, your ability is cell regeneration, commonly known as healing. This is the ability to restore organisms to their optimal health via atomic absorption and conversion. You are able to alleviate damage to the body, revitalize the weakened, and cure disease and/or poisoning."

A horizontal line divides the middle as it continues, "However, you can not resurrect nor perform any actions by reflex. Your abilities must be learned through vigorous hours."

 _Learned through vigorous hours…_ Why couldn't he have gotten something easy, like super-speed? And how the hell is he supposed to _atomically absorb and convert?_ That sounds worryingly similar to mathematics, which he stopped trying in a long time ago. And, now that he is thinking about it, Yixing would much rather have something that has to do with the psychological aspect of things. It would be so interesting to be able to manipulate the mind. He'd even settle for something like hypnosis, or _hypnotizing,_ as Jongdae had put it. Assuming this is all possible, of course.

The screen backs up to its original place in the wall. Then, it goes transparent, revealing a small compartment within the wall. The size reminds him of a microwave. He steps closer, standing on his toes to see what is inside while also not touching the wall because that seems awfully risky considering he has a mere _bracelet_ with the ability to kill him. Just as he gets a glance of what is inside, it goes down, like an elevator. A moment later it returns, holding some sort of green orb. 

Yixing's forced to back up – and wince because _fuck_ his tailbone is probably bruised or something – as the robot claw suddenly appears above his head, opening up the microwave compartment and taking out the ball. It is similar to what Junmyeon had done with the water because instead of it being in RF's grip, it's floating slightly above the metal claws. What is with this place and floating? Yixing understands that he's in space, but everything here seemed gravitated except for the toilets. Speaking of that, he'll have to do some research on this _Eugênio Vermillion_ dude. Maybe send him an angry email. 

"Please step inside the chamber." RF directs, regaining his attention. 

"The _what?"_

"The chamber to your left." Turns Yixing's head to the left, where sits a huge glass chamber. It looks like a hamster tube for someone extremely rich, except that the top part does the same thing the wall does and has a little microwave space. The window of it slides open and RF places the green orb inside. 

Like any human being, Yixing is extremely hesitant. He approaches said chamber, inspecting it for any hints of _this-is-the-part-where-he-dies._ RF doesn't seem to mind, as ten seconds pass and nothing is said.

"Is it safe?" He asks after a good minute.

"There is only a three and one third chance of spontaneous megaradiation resulting in burning to death."

"... _Why?"_

"Because some individuals are more prone to spontaneous megaradiation resulting in burning to death."

"Yes, I get that. _Why?"_

"Because some individuals are more prone to spontaneous megaradiation resulting in burning to death."

Yixing sighs. With people, he'd usually win this game. But he knows his odds against a robot in the _why-because_ game are not in his favor. However, it seems as if the odds of spontaneous megaradiation resulting in burning to death are low as well, so he steps in. He'll be fine.

Wait, he forgot his other question!

"Does it hurt?!" Yixing's words bounce off of the glass in front of him, echoing back in his face.

 _It's okay,_ he reassures himself. It probably doesn't hurt, considering that he is being placed in here and he is apparently a crucial member of team EXO and in order to save the universe they need the crucial team member to not be an individual more prone to spontaneous megaradiation resulting in burning death. Right? 

Oh no, a question mark! (And an exclamation point!) 

Question marks pique Yixing’s interest because they pose something never answered, and it is interesting to observe what humans cannot answer, such as which religion is the true one, or if pizza is a vegetable. But, more commonly, they are things that actually _can_ be answered– people just don’t think deep enough. Or they’re just too dumb. By knowing what people ask it’s easy to make judgements, so he already knows if they’re worth his time or not. Question marks aren’t the sole indicator though. Sometimes, Yixing hates question marks, because the thing in front of them would be something like x2+b/ax+(b/a2 )=-c/a+b+a/2b _what is k_ and Yixing really doesn’t like x2+b/ax+(b/a2 )=-c/a+b+a/2b _what is k._ Overall, questions can make him tired, frustrated, interested, and even sometimes happy– but never _afraid_. This is something new.

Yixing thinks quite often, so he has definitely thought about what to do in the face of death. Because the purpose of life is to stay alive and further the species, he decided that he would do whatever it took to not die. Yixing had listed common events he could die in, preparing what to do in the events of, but not limited to: car crash, sudden disease, suicide, kidnapping by the mafia, public violence… he has it all (though some may argue that trying to not suicide while suiciding is rather hard). But nothing on his list involves a three and one third chance of spontaneous megaradiation resulting in burning to death!

So, he chooses the closest to it, _being kidnapped by the Mafia and then brought to dungeon and asphyxiated,_ and takes action.

Unfortunately, Yixing thinks that he is going to break the glass and burst out at the same time the door opens. This results in him charging and then tripping on the little stoop and then falling almost on his face if it weren’t for the arm he throws under himself just in time.

One of Yixing’s not so bright moments.

“Zhang Yixing, what are you doing?” RF asks.

Because he is currently in too much pain to say _I am in too much pain,_ he hopes the agonized groan will make due as he attempts to stand up. When he does, he brushes himself off, answering with an honest, “Falling on my face.” As he heads towards the exit, wanting to get out ASAP. And maybe an ice pack. Like, the real deal. Not those fake shake ones. Or is it like the food and they’ll have some sort of galactically modified ice pack?

“Wait.” The AI says, stopping Yixing four point five steps from escape.

“You have a schedule.” It tells him, “It is accessible by your bracelet by swiping up and to the left.”

“Oh.” There’s that disappointment feeling again. First a shitty power, and now a _schedule._ Why is he forced to put so much effort into something he wants nothing to do with?! It’s just like school, except that he can’t cheat by with his quick mind. In fact, his mind seems to be a little frazzled lately (the burning in his arm keeps reminding him that).

“Goodbye, Zhang Yixing.” 

“Yeah, bye.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so all of the members have their corresponding powers–– and also i've tried to come up with a scientific explanation for some of them as you'll see in the future. it didn't go very well :,)
> 
> tysm for reading love! and thank you to all who have left kudos <3


	6. Manifestation of Inadequacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing attends his first official training. With this, his ego takes a big hit.

_SCHEDULE: ZHANG YIXING TO_ **_ROOM SGGFTAIL_3302_ ** _AT 06:00:00EXT_ was absolutely unacceptable for Zhang Yixing.

So he just didn’t go.

This decision was made around _moms-gonna-kill-me_ bedtime from _I am not going to get any sleep at this rate_ and replaying in his head Jongdae’s description: _It sucks ass, man. Like, I literally threw up on the first day of my training. You're going to hate it._ Though he doesn’t like Jongdae, he trusts his judgement because Jongdae is a human – at least for what he knows… – and although athleticism varies between individuals, Yixing solidly resides in the below average ability and therefore should take anyone’s advice on it. Jongdae’s wisdom was basically telling him to not go. Just like RF_05’s _on time,_ he was going to show up when he wanted to. What was the worst that could happen, anyway?

Yixing shouldn’t have doubted that the people here can be _just_ as bad as the technology.

At exactly 06:07:59EXT, he was softly awakened. He was almost certain he was too much of a stranger for these guys to wake him up (and besides, who knew his schedule?), but perhaps he had mistaken. Eyes opening after the small tap, he saw stars. Several golden specks floating above him in intricate patterns, and was that music in the background? How come he was just finding out the technology provided all this comfort while sleeping? He had watched, mesmerized as the stars began to arrange themselves in lines. The lines made two circles, which connected and then sprouted a figure in the middle. 

Wait– that’s a penis. 

_“AHAHA!”_ Came a bellow, followed by war cries and fluorescent lights and Yixing having a heart attack. He shot up in bed, seeing Jongdae, who was wheezing on Chanyeol’s shoulder, and Baekhyun, twirling his fingers, making the tiny star-penis return to his palms. 

But before Yixing could yell at them, cursing them out for interrupting his slumber, he was grabbed by the arm. Then the other. And then his legs. And next thing he knew he was being dragged out into the hall against his will. His struggle was no use against the other three, and when he let out a scream Baekhyun decided it was a good idea to gag him (as in have the three stop for five minutes and Yixing’s limbs burning as Baekhyun skips into the bathroom to grab a towel to tie around Yixing’s head and then announce ‘ _I GOT THE BAD GUY’_ when they got to the gymnasium). 

And now here he is, fully garbed in pajamas sitting criss cross on a mat in **ROOM SGGFTAIL_3302** at 06:10:39EXT. 

Thanks, Unholy Trinity.

“Glad to see you wanted to join us,” Greets Kyungsoo from next to him, giving a look that says he’s joking but also not.

Yixing only nods in response, looking to the mirror wall to see a large cowlick sticking straight up, as if he were some sort of troll. But he’s too out of it to care; it wouldn’t change how out of place he feels anyways. All eight of them are here, dressed in workout clothes looking like they had got their full thirteen point five hours of sleep. Yixing got maybe four.

He keeps getting stares from the others, either at what he’s wearing or his hair or just him in general because apparently no one shows up to the space gym like this at six in the morning. Well, it’s not his fault for being unaware of the etiquette. 

“Alright!” Echoes the gentle voice of Junmyeon. He is clapping his hands together like some kind of football coach as he brings everyone together, effectively cutting all discourse. 

“You all know what you should be doing, except for Baekhyun, you’ll be showing your new partner around.”

Yixing doesn’t even need to look at the guy to know he’s doing something weird. Yet, he does, and Baekhyun’s currently tapping his – weirdly long – fingers together like a movie villain. Yixing shudders. 

Why do they do that? He gets the directive from most body language, such as a thumbs up means good because positive direction points upwards, or its reciprocal, but this one he’s lost on. He doesn’t understand the menace of finger tapping, but maybe Psychology Today does. But unfortunately he doesn’t have access to Psychology Today as his phone is currently back in Seoul as well as his stuffed animals and that screwdriver and Cat and his mother (not that he minds much about the last part though– he could really use a break). 

Now this body language he _does_ understand.

Baekhyun has decided it would be best to do the most provocative beckon possible, calling Yixing over with a single pointer finger. When Yixing answers with a disgusted look, the guy's smirk only grows wider. A weary glance to the exit tells him that he won’t make it on time, and besides, he can’t guarantee that the door won’t be locked from the inside but then conveniently unlocked when Baekhyun brings a gun to his head and tells him to get up and start walking. 

Hence, he joins his captor as the rest depart into groups. Yixing sees two of the three tall guys – he had forgotten their names – heading to a sparring floor, Minseok and Chanyeol going to a rack of weights, Jongdae following and clamping onto Minseok just as he picks up a weight and hence dropping it on Chanyeol’s toe (“HOLY CHEESE AND FUCKERS!”), Junmyeon rushing over to aid the situation, and Kyungsoo furtively sneaking behind a large stack of mats to where Yixing can’t see. Kyungsoo doesn’t seem like the most athletically inclined guy. Maybe he has some sort of escape. Maybe he should ask. 

“Yah,” Yixing flinches at a sudden slap on the arm, which hit in just the right angle to make a cringeworthy fish-like noise. Baekhyun raises a brow, “What’s wrong with you?” 

“What?” Yixing’s genuinely confused.

Baekhyun huffs frustratedly, which brings even more perplexion and a bit of indignance. “I’ve been trying to get your attention for a minute. Are you like, deaf or something?” 

“No.” Yixing doesn’t like the way he said that, but he knows he shouldn’t be mean.

“It’s just that Chanyeol screaming is distracting… And has it ever occurred to you that maybe I’m _ignoring_ you because I don’t like you because you snuck into my hotel at night and put a gun to my head and took me to this spaceship with a bunch of people I don’t know and a bunch of things that don’t make sense to do something I never wanted to do?”

Okay, maybe that was a little mean. But it felt nice to get out!

He sees that in how Baekhyun’s brows are raised in genuine surprise, his eyes darting to his right wrist before he breaks into a smile. 

_“Feisty._ You’re perfect, babe.” 

Of all the things Yixing has been called (which mostly consists of _Yixing,_ but–), _feisty_ has never been one of them. In fact, people labeled such typically annoy him, because how can they get so riled up over something so trivial? And to prove what? That they’re dominant? They must have a _lot_ of insecurity issues. 

Baekhyun takes his hand, completely ignoring the _wait-what-why_ look on Yixing’s face as he begins to drag him through the area.

“Okay, so basically,” He explains, “this part of the training area is for everything except our powers, AKA the boring stuff. It’s split into two subsections, the physical exercise part and the weapons part. The second’s a little funner.”

Yixing nods – and notes on his usage of _funner_ – as he is lead around. Baekhyun introduces the weightlifting and endurance area, where machines familiar to Yixing are which makes him feel the slightest relieved; sparring and fighting, a strange kind of space treadmill, a first aid place (where Chanyeol’s throbbing toe is being wrapped by an apologetic Jongdae), and the weapons section. 

He eyes all of the shining equipment as his tour guide speaks. “Here is the weapons section. Some of them you’ll recognize, some of them you won’t. You can pick whatever you want to fight with since you didn’t exactly get to choose your power. I don’t recommend the tentacles though. They’re only hot in hentai. Also, by the way, what is your power? Isn’t it like, _healing?”_

“Cell regeneration.” Yixing answers because it sounds less lame.

“Hah! _BO-RING_.” Baekhyun offers his sympathies, “You don’t even get to _hurt_ things with your power. Must suck. Anyways, you have to train your power too. It’s not that hard, but it takes a long time because you gotta figure out what you’re doing. I mean, with me, it’s like you’re tensing up and trying to squeeze out–“

“Okay!” Yixing interrupts before he can go any further. He doesn’t exactly care for Baekhyun’s power, anyway. Especially after the whole star-dick thing. “I get it. Thanks.”

“Anytime dude.” Either Baekhyun’s actually dumb or deciding to ignore Yixing’s glare. Actually dumb sounds the more viable option. 

“Also!~” Yixing is yanked again. Baekhyun’s voice is starting to get real annoying real fast. He is brought to a gun rack, where hangs a variation of the sort. They all look like nerf guns, though. Wonder why. 

Baekhyun points to a pistol in front of him. “Recognize that?”

Yixing takes a long and hard look at the weapon. It’s dark grey with a red tip. Must be some kind of training tool, because now that he looks, all of the guns have red tips.

“No.” He answers honestly. He then blinks, though, and not for rehydrating his eyes so they don’t dry out so he doesn’t go blind– but for _wait a second._

_Yixing is now the one pinned down, a gun to his head. His eyes widen, looking up to see the red tip of some kind of pistol raised right to his forehead. It’s touching lightly as if the bullet potentially going through his brain will be gentle._

Oh.

Oh my god… 

Baekhyun’s currently laughing his ass off as Yixing is bug-eyed, trying to tell himself that this ‘gun’ is _not_ the thing he had surrendered everything he ever knew to. It’s _not._ Please. It _can’t_ be.

“I can’t believe…” The other stammers through bouts of laughter, “That y–you–... you fell for _that!”_ He wheezes, hanging onto Yixing’s shoulder to not lose balance. “It– it was so funny!... I was– I was trying _so hard_ not to laugh because you looked– so scared!... And…”

To prove it to himself, Yixing picks up the pistol from the rack. He shoves Baekhyun off of him as he cocks the weapon; it making the same exact noise that had petrified him nights ago. He aims it at his partner, pulling the trigger and _please-something-come-out-of-it._

Baekhyun laughs even harder.

Yixing has never wanted to die so much.

He tosses the gun onto the ground, bringing his hands to his temples. The frustration is unbearable this time, because there’s no one he can blame but himself. For his stupidity. Yixing was stupid. _I was stupid._ Not even the past tense can comfort him. Heck, why did he have to be so panicked as to be blinded from the obvious sham of the gun?! Aren’t human responses to danger supposed to _help_ them? Not get them taken into outer space and forced to work with people he doesn’t know to save the universe?!

“Buddy?” Baekhyun says, voice significantly gentler. Yixing doesn’t know how long it’s been since he has stopped laughing. Heck, he can’t think about anything other than _why did I do that?!_ because _why did he do that?!_

“You okay? Looks like you’re about to cry.”

Yixing snaps his head to the other, expecting at least sliver of empathy, but Baekhyun looks like he’s about to burst into laughter all over again. That’s it. He _hates_ this guy. The big _H_ is reserved for Byun Baekhyun. Number one spot, far above number two _Seulgi from physics._

“Let’s– just move on.” He diverts, doing all he can to calm himself and refrain from tackling this guy to the ground because that will only cause more problems. 

But he knows it’ll happen sometime. 

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

It never occurred to Yixing that after his tour of the gymnasium, he’d actually have to _use_ it. 

Despite his multiple requests – and attempts – to go change into something more fitting (if he absolutely _had_ to do this), he ends up getting drenched in sweat in his dark grey #2 pajamas.

It also never occurred to Yixing the full extent of his unathleticism. 

At first, maybe weightlifting just isn’t Yixing’s forte. His muscles have never been built for anything over thirty pounds. And maybe Yixing just isn’t a very accurate individual when it comes to aim. And maybe Yixing isn’t very flexible either, nor is he exactly quick or durable or energetic. 

He finally admits how pathetic he is when he gets to cardio, in which he barely endures a good ten minutes while Baekhyun and Sehun – _that’s_ his name! – (who decided to join after ‘Jongin wouldn’t stop bugging him’, though Yixing observed ‘Jongin beating him in sparring several times’) go to thirty with a light sweat. 

After he presses the stop button and toils the annoying ten seconds it takes for the machine to actually halt, he gets judgmental looks from both of them. 

“Already?” Baekhyun had said, Sehun giving a stare just as bewildered. As if they’ve never seen someone who’s not an olympic athlete before. 

“Yes.” Yixing said, forthwith leaving to get water because he didn’t want to awkwardly stand there and be scrutinized like some alien.

It also never occurred to him how mediocre his body is. 

This happens when, while getting a refreshment consisting of at least a gallon of water, Minseok invites him over to show him some about sparing with Junmyeon. Because the two are his favourites here so far and he doesn’t want to go back to Baekhyun and Sehun and their judgmental looks and he should at least make some friends and it’s only teaching not actually doing, he accepts.

He only realizes it when Junmyeon goes, “It’s so hot, I don’t know how you’re functioning with that shirt on.” And then Yixing takes notice that the two are shirtless and then takes more notice because _holy shit, these guys are jacked._

Despite Minseok’s short stature, he is definitely not lacking on the muscle. He’s got to have at least eight abs, arms thick and his baby face completely contrasting against his WWE smackdown body. Junmyeon is more or less the same, except his handsomeness looks more mature so there’s not a huge _what_ that’s _his body?!_ kind of thing. For some reason, he has trouble tearing his eyes from the latter. He’s just so _godly._

“Yeah,” The sound meekly draws from the back of his throat after at least ten seconds of eyeing their bodies. Though Yixing’s not fat nor horribly skinny, a prolonging nineteen year diet of chips, rice, and whatever-mom-makes hasn’t exactly done him any justice in the nice-body department. In conclusion, there is _no_ way he is taking off his shirt. He has already had enough shame for today. 

The worst occurring-to-Yixing of them all is how he can’t win at _anything._

He had expected to be at least at level with these guys, having his fair share of triumph and shortcomings. It would’ve been the greatest aid to his depleting self-confidence to know that he’s at least better at _something._ But _no_ , because Sehun _has_ to beat him in ten rounds of sparring, and Jongin _has_ to come over and drop into a split contrast Yixing’s triangle-stretch, and Kyungsoo _has_ to shoot his crossbow such that it hits straight through Yixing’s missed arrow like Merida in that movie Brave, and Chanyeol _has_ to give him that pitiful look when he decides to bench press only fifty pounds, and Jongdae _has_ to be the more energetic and Baekhyun _has_ to one-up him on the treadmill and Junmyeon _has_ to keep distracting him and Minseok _has_ to kindly offer to lower the weight by ten pounds when Yixing’s clearly struggling and–

Fuck. Someone’s had a shitty day.

And Yixing heads back to the EXO-M dormitory still – shocker – feeling like shit. Even after taking two and a half showers. Two _and a half,_ because in the middle of his third shower Jongin suddenly appeared _right_ there naked and Yixing screamed but not as loud as Jongin screamed and although he ran right out Yixing was too shaken to condition his hair for the third time.

On the bright side though, Yixing makes a discovery. 

Or, more like an idea. 

As he is walking back to the sleeping quarters, Jongin approaches him in the hall. Yixing is a bit abashed, considering this almost stranger just saw his business– no, he saw the whole establishment. Jongin seems to have taken his shower; his hair is all wet and he’s dressed in pajama looking clothes that aren’t the pajama looking clothes he wears in the daytime. 

His head is bowed apologetically he says, “I’m sorry, Yixing. I didn’t know you were in there.”

“The shower was on.” Yixing points out, “And the curtains were closed. And the door was shut. And my stuff was _right_ outside the shower. How could you not have known?” 

“Well,” Jongin looks like a hurt puppy as he tries to the right words, tongue slightly poking from his frown. “Usually no one uses that shower…”

“So?”

“I just thought…” 

“It’s fine.” Yixing isn’t surprised when he sees the other’s eyes go to his bracelet. It remains green, because he truly doesn’t care other than the slight embarrassment and that rush of adrenaline that spiked after Jongin scared the daylights out of him. Maybe he’d care were it Baekhyun, but it’s not. And Jongin doesn’t seem like the guy to make fun of him.

He does have one question though.

“Why do you teleport into the shower?”

Jongin looks up, caught off guard at the question for some reason. Wouldn’t someone have asked by now, under the assumption that this is a routine thing?

“I don’t like having to open the curtain. It’s scary. Like, something could jump out at you, if you think about it.” 

Yixing thinks about it and is internally shaking his head. But he doesn’t say anything because although he feels the slightest of pity for this guy’s immaturity, that won’t be enough for the bracelet.

“Okay, goodnight.” He says, continuing on. He hears Jongin’s footsteps begin soon after, a mumbled goodbye echoing down the hall. 

Now Yixing _can_ shake his head. How can somebody be so airheaded? He reminds Yixing of a young child. But he has to be at least eighteen.

It’s when he conceives the thought _at least I’m not as dumb as Jongin_ that the idea comes!

Though today was the biggest humiliation he has faced yet, manifesting all of his shortcomings for everyone to see, there is no way all these guys are better at everything than Yixing. It’s too improbable– impossible.

There have already been some clear weaknesses in some of the characters here, such as Baekhyun’s forwardness or Jongin’s lack of intellect. Maybe, Yixing thinks as he finds his room and doesn’t bother to turn on the light because he’s the only one in there, it’ll be of his interest to get to know everyone here a bit better. To scope out and identify their flaws, not only to alleviate the indignance for his poor athletic ability, but to also improve work dynamics because he’ll understand the kinds of people they are.

He is still thinking about this in bed, staring up at the metal ceiling painted with dark. 

Yes, he knows that this is mean, but _so what?_ It’s beneficial to him, and nobody will know of it. And even so, what would it matter that they are hurt? Other than the loss of trust and tension (which is what, essentially, this plan would avoid), Yixing wouldn’t care if these people knew his honest thoughts about them. This is why the world should be systematically built on pragmatism, because without all of these feelings and stuff the world would be a much better place. 

But it’s not like he’s on Earth, or anything.

Unexpectedly, just before his head hits the pillow (and this scene would end and transition into the next day or whatever), there’s a knock. It must be someone from EXO-K, because if not wouldn’t they just come in on their own accord? 

“Hello?” 

This is enough of a cue for the door to open. Through the acute space, a pair of eyes peer up to Yixing on his bed.

“Sorry, am I intruding?” Junmyeon asks politely. This contradicts how he opens the door more. Light from the hall creeps into the room.

“Yes.” Yixing answers honestly, “I was just about to sleep.”

The other stills, face faltering, as if waiting for a _but._ Too bad he doesn’t know Yixing. 

“... Oh. I'm sorry, then.” Junmyeon replies after a little too long, coming in anyways. He shuts the door, flickering on the yellowish lights and making a beeline to the bed across from Yixing’s. Minseok’s. Or Minseok’s and Jongdae’s. Or sometimes Jongdae’s. He really doesn’t know what’s up with it, nor does he know what’s up with the other half of the room looking completely out of place because it’s so empty. 

Yixing notices Junmyeon is in sleeping clothes as well and he wonders where everyone else is. Not that he’s complaining– the only one in EXO-M bearable is Sehun and also Minseok if he’s not with Jongdae. Basically everyone but Jongdae. Junmyeon seems unaware of whose bed he’s sitting on judging by the lack of _ew, what’s this stain?_ and immediate recoil.

Instead, he folds his hands together on his lap, “How was your day?”

...Did he hear that right? _How Was Your Day…?_

When Junmyeon looks up at him expectantly, a small smile grazing his tired face, Yixing is genuinely surprised. Since when are people, especially young-adult men, so courteous as to come all the way to someone’s room to ask them how their day was? It’s fitting though, because even Junmyeon’s features match the sophistication of a diplomat. Maybe not the body, though. That’s more of a heartthrob. 

Oh, right, he was asked a question.

“Exhausting.” Yixing answers. _That’s why I was just about to sleep._

“That’s normal.” Junmyeon nods, “I know it sucks, but it’ll get better, like I said. You have to admit it’s better than the first day, right?”

“No.”

His face falls slightly, however, he doesn’t glance to Yixing’s wrist that’s hanging off the bar of the bed, which is a bit strange. If Yixing had a dollar for every time someone had looked to his bracelet after he said something today… 

“Oh, okay. Then it’ll be better than the first day soon.” 

“Alright.”

Despite Yixing’s dry conversation ethic, Junmyeon is for whatever reason determined to do this late-night small talk. “What did you think of the training?” 

“A lot.” Again, honesty. “Mostly, I learned about how athletically impaired I am. And how Baekhyun had used a fake gun to threaten me in Seoul.”

“Wait– he used a _what?_ To _what?”_ Junmyeon looks shocked, but Yixing is not. He’s a great judge of character, and his judgment says Baekhyun would be the kind of person to let these kinds of things slip by the leader. 

“A fake gun to threaten me into compliance.” There’s a bit of bitterness to his voice.

“I told him not to…” Junmyeon mumbles more to himself than Yixing. He then speaks up, “I’m sorry about him.” 

What is Yixing supposed to say to that? That it's okay? Because it’s not. And why should Junmyeon apologize for the actions of another individual just because he has some authority over them? Unless it was Junmyeon’s choice to pair Baekhyun up with him or something, then he should be sorry.

“Is there the option to change mission partners?” He asks. 

The release of breath and downcast eyes from the other tells him no. A slight bout of disappointment washes over Yixing, because _why not?_ It doesn’t sound too hard to do.

“I’m sorry.” Junmyeon apologizes again. “I know he can be… mean. Especially since you’re new. If he’s ever bothering you too much just let me know. And besides–“

“He’s bothering me too much.”

Junmyeon looks up at him, and Yixing reciprocates the whole eyebrows raised thing. 

“What? I’m telling the truth.” He flashes his wrist.

To his surprise, Junmyeon breaks into a small chuckle, flashing perfect teeth. He must have had braces as a kid or something. 

“You know, you’re an interesting character, Yixing.” He says, deciding to get comfortable on the Mindae bed as he leans against the wall. “I’m a pretty observant person. I’ve noticed you’re different.” 

Yixing yawns as he averts from his hunched position, leaning back onto the wall behind him as well. His nineteen years of living with himself lets say with confidence that, “I am well aware.” 

“I mean, we do have a lot of different people here, because, you know, none of us knew each other before EXO. Some are more shy, some more outgoing, and all that. But you're really unique.” For some reason, it feels like a compliment coming from Junmyeon, especially when he folds his knees to his chest, leaning his chin on them with an intent gleam to his eyes. “Mind telling me about yourself?”

This guy reminds Yixing of hairdressers. They always make him feel welcomed and comfortable, asking questions about his life as if they’re genuinely interested (but this usually ends in Yixing making them _un_ comfortable with asking about their training and pointing out the superficiality humans value too much). He wonders if Junmyeon has ever gotten that kind of hair-dresser-people-person-training, but then figures it’s unlikely because A) Junmyeon looks too young to be someone who has already gotten tertiary education and B) he hasn’t asked if he plays any sports.

“Um,” Yixing doesn’t remember the last time anyone has been curious about his person. Usually, it’s weirded out. “I’m Yixing, as you know. I’m nineteen. I just graduated highschool. I live in Seoul. Uh, I–“

“No,” Junmyeon laughs, “I didn’t mean _factual_. What am I, a hairdresser?” This offsets Yixing more than it should, but he was _just_ thinking about that! “I meant the _you_ you. Who you are personally.”

“Why are you so interested?” He’s baffled by this guy. If he were actually an interesting person, then, being nineteen, it would be likely that someone would have inquired about him by now. He wonders, if he were the protagonist in a book, would he be interesting?

Probably not. Too stolid. 

“Am I not allowed to be?” Junmyeon counters, which is quite annoying because it’s completely avoiding the question with another question so all Yixing can do is narrow his eyes at him. And is he _smiling?_

“No…” He says, wondering what in the world to tell him. “Well, for starters, I’m not a robot. Nor an alien.” Junmyeon’s laughing, but the real funny part is how he thinks Yixing is joking. 

“And I guess what is so ‘interesting’ about me is that I don’t partake in a lot of excitement or drama. Until I was kidnapped and brought onto a spaceship.”

Typically, small talk involved two individuals asking things about each other that they didn’t truly care about, letting the information in one ear and out the other as they hold ingenuine smiles. However, Junmyeon, for some reason, seems actually engaged. Like he is a student, taking notes. All he needs is the desk.

But then the student would raise his hand because he argues, “But then what’s the meaning of life, if there’s no excitement or drama?”

 _The meaning of life?_ Yixing blinks. Is this guy for real? Also, this goes against all social norms. You’re not supposed to talk about the meaning of life with someone you just met. Even less someone you just met because you were kidnapped and brought onto a spaceship.

But Yixing’s the antithesis of social norms. It’s just surprising he’s not the only one. Nonetheless, he answers. “...Biologically, it’s to reproduce and further the species, but I don’t think that’s what you mean…” He stills, configuring an answer. The meaning of life is–

Wait, why not just speak his thoughts? He’s asking for it.

“The meaning of life is subject to the person,” Yixing states, “it’s an illusion made by the individual to keep them going because they need motivation. What you’re trying to keep motivated for is work, education, all this stuff you don’t really want to do but have to or else you won’t succeed and you’ll plummet economically and socially and that won’t be good and you will most likely feel useless and that there’s no point in life which tends to cause suicide.”

Junmyeon takes a moment to gawk at the bluntness and then process. 

“So what I’m getting here… you’re saying the meaning of life is to find a meaning of life so you can use your meaning of life to not kill yourself?” 

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Yixing couldn’t have said it better. 

“That… weirdly makes a lot of sense.” Junmyeon looks like he’s having a revelation. It reminds him of Namjoon whenever he and Yixing would get into discussion and he’d simplify something profound. Funny how people think so deep they get stuck. 

“But what about the most common ones. The stuff everyone says is the meaning of life. Like, love? If so many people say it, doesn't it have to have some truth?”

Yixing tries to focus on the part where Junmyeon brings up a new point but instead what happens is _like, love, like, love, like love,_ and then he’s reminded of that childhood game involving picking petals off a flower to determine the future and then he’s trying to remember the last time he played that game if he ever did when– 

“Did you hear me?”

He looks up, feeling a bit sheepish for some reason. Usually, he is pretty shameless when it comes to his detachment. Not with Junmyeon though. Maybe it has to do with how he now kind of likes him because he is 1) nice and 2) defying social etiquette by talking about the meaning of life with an almost-stranger.

“N– Yes, but I wasn’t paying attention.” He catches himself.

Junmyeon doesn’t seem to mind as he repeats himself. “I said, you even said yourself that the meaning of life is to reproduce to further the species. And wouldn’t love be the closest thing to what biology is saying? And science is always right?” 

He’s got a point. 

However, “Love is just an emotion. There are plenty of emotions that can be just as strong. It’s not special.”

“But it’s what creates life.” 

“Anyone before third century BC would disagree. I don’t think the cavemen cared about who they fucked.” 

“You sound like someone who’s been emotionally starved.” 

Now _this_ catches Yixing off guard. 

_Emotionally starved?_ He almost scoffs, but then, as if he’s in a play and the off-white spotlight on the other suddenly turns pink, he sees Junmyeon in a different light. Yeah. Junmyeon _definitely_ gives off the vibe of a sappy person. How hadn’t he noticed before? 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yixing asks, but not in the offended, ready to fight, what’s- _that_ -supposed-to-mean kind of manner. A simple question in his regular monotone voice. 

“Either that or hurt by someone you love.” Junmyeon answers, “You almost sound like you’re against love. Is it because you’ve never experienced it, or something?” 

Half true. Yixing has experienced attraction before, like any teenage boy. He is familiar with that feeling of sudden nervousness, heightened senses, and sometimes that blood rush down south all courtesy to a person. But it’s just biology doing its job and carrying out the Meaning of Life. And with _Love,_ Yixing doesn’t think it’s too different. Just those feelings, which he wouldn’t define as necessarily good. 

“You know, it’s a logical fallacy to put the attention on your opponent’s person in a disagreement.” Yixing says instead of _no and quite frankly I don’t really care_ because that would only corroborate what he’s saying. “It is clever to put the attention on the individual for potential flustering and hence slip-ups, _especially_ when you know that your argument is flawed,” he smiles sweetly, “but that’s exactly why it’s a fallacy in the first place.”

Now Junmyeon’s the one caught off guard.

In fact, he looks almost offended. Yixing watches his face go through a series of changes: _wait, wait? The hell do you… oh, I get it. Well, you’re wrong– wait, no, you’re right… you’re right? I have to pee–_

Wait, no, not that. That’s _I give up_.

“You’re very smart.” Junmyeon sighs at last. “Let me guess, Seoul University? Sungkyunkwan?”

“What?” Yixing meant to say that in his head, but it came out anyways. “No." 

“Oh, then where?”

“I’m not going to college.”

This is usually the part where the other person stills, surprised. Because it’s _crazy_ to think that someone with so much intellectual potential could possibly _not_ like school? Impossible! For Junmyeon, the shock is around five seconds. 

“What? Why not–“

A sudden high pitched beep interrupts the both of them. Yixing flinches, still not accustomed to the signal of the entrance as the metal door splits open. In comes Sehun, followed by Minseok whose eyes are glued to a tablet. Sehun is the only one that stops, meanwhile Minseok goes straight to the Mindae bed and literally _lays_ on top of Junmyeon, still staring at the screen.

“What’s going on?” Sehun asks, looking from Yixing to Junmyeon and repeating that a couple times. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” Junmyeon answers, “Why would something be wrong?” 

“You’re never in here.” Sehun again rubbernecks between the two. Yixing’s brows knit. He had thought Junmyeon only came to talk to him because it was some kind of leader obligation? “You haven’t been in here since…” 

“No. It’s nothing like that.” Junmyeon snaps to answer, and as a _very smart_ individual, Yixing knows there’s something not being said. Some kind of past incident that is probably traumatizing according to how fast he jumped to answer. Maybe it has something to do with the strange layout of the room. An explosion? A fire? 

“I’m just talking to Yixing.”

“Why?” 

Although Junmyeon glares, giving a stern _“Sehun,”_ as he lifts Minseok up to slide out from under him, Yixing has to agree. Why? 

“What’cha reading?” He asks Minseok as he sets his head back down on the pillow. Yixing notices that the little braids he had when they first met are now off, leaving a few strands curly on his raven head.

“Yes.” 

“...Alright, I’ll leave you to it.” Junmyeon has the courtesy to say, while Sehun downright snorts. The leader turns his attention to him. 

“Did you eat something good?”

“Yeah.”

“Shower?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Brush your teeth?”

 _“Hyung,”_ Sehun whines, completely contradicting his, “I’m not a child.”

At this, Yixing studies the guy. Although he had previously thought him to be one of the oldest, he now notices the presence of youth on Sehun’s face, tugging at his cheeks and brightening his eyes. It was the brows that had thrown him off. How old _is_ he, then? 

“But did you?”

“Yeah.”

At Junmyeon’s winning grin, Sehun rolls his eyes, passing the shorter to get to his own bed. Yixing catches a glance taken at him, as if to make sure he’s not watching. Of course, it’s natural to be insecure in front of a stranger. Especially when an embarrassing dad-like friend starts to ask trivial questions like _did you brush your teeth._ It’s like they are all family or something. And how Minseok had just flopped on Junmyeon without a care in the world… 

The intimacy excludes Yixing, but he’s used to being in this kind of dynamic. 

It’s not like he cares.

“Alright,” Junmyeon claps his hands, knitting his fingers together in the hold. He did that earlier today, Yixing recalls. “I will be leaving now. I know, tragic… even if you beg me to stay, I will go. I have a duty to tend to by the name of EXO-K. Wish me luck. Goodnight. Sleep tight. Love you all.” 

“Yes.”

“Get out.”

“Bye.” Yixing meekly says, and in turn is the only one who receives a smile as Junmyeon leaves. 

He doesn’t feel like such shit anymore. 

Now he can fall asleep with only slight discomfort. Note _slight_ , because these guys are pretty mellow but he is still shaken to his core with the event of Baekhyun waking him up in the middle of the night to kidnap him. And the whole being-forced-to-save-the-universe thing. But nonetheless, Yixing’s so tired that he passes right out, not even stirring when Jongdae bursts in with an _I’M HOME, BITCHES! DID YOU MISS ME?!_ And then _Oh, whatcha reading babe?_ And then _Yes… wait– no, stop,_ Dae!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, another chapter where yixing suffers (i am so shocked!)
> 
> also, yixing and junmyeon's convo just might be a sneak peak into the kind of discourse you'll see between them in the future, because the contemplation of ethical and psychological human nature is /exactly/ what a sci-fi needs (i am so sorry!)
> 
> anyways tysm for reading it makes me rlyrlyrly284982 happy knowing ppl like my stuff :,) (i am so thankful!)


	7. Ultimate Gamer Strategy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing pursues his plan of getting to know the members of EXO.

**IF THIS** were a normal day, Yixing would be woken up on his back or left side on a grey full-sized mattress sporting an old quilt. _Be woken up,_ because it’d be his mother A) yelling from a distance, or B) yelling from the door, or C, the least appealing occurrence) yelling two inches from his ear. It’d call for something along the lines of a task (which usually involves ‘undone’ chores), a scolding (which usually involves a poor job in said chores or Cat acting up– it’s not _his_ fault!), or just telling him to wake up because it’s past twelve and it’s already bad enough he doesn’t want to go to college and she wants to slow the path to _I’m-thirty-five-and-living-in-my-mom’s-basement_ as much as possible. 

But now, Yixing peacefully wakes up to the metal ceiling painted with dark.

Checking his watch, which requires a tap as if opening a phone, he sees ten in the morning. Yet it feels like it’s time to go to bed again. If anything, living in a place with absolutely zero daylight is more like a _mom’s basement._ Maybe this is Randomness preparing Yixing for his future abode. He abruptly drops his wrist, which is kind of a mistake because he isn’t looking and slams it onto the metal bed frame, swears, and then looks up to see if anyone heard his swear. The room is empty. These people really like waking up early… and that’s fine, as long as he’s not involved. 

Climbing down from the bed is so much harder than it should be, because once Yixing’s feet hit the ground, it manifests how much he _aches._ He can literally _feel_ his calves stinging. It harmonizes with the mutual throb of his whole body. Isn’t sleep supposed to alleviate this, even just a little? Or is it because he had decided stretching was ten minutes he could spend sleeping? God damnit. Why didn’t he listen to the others? Or, to specify, the eight people that are each completely and utterly more athletic than him and therefore are subject to a further extension of knowledge in the athletic care area and had told him he should stretch so he wouldn’t feel like his muscles were going to burst? He must have been _really_ pissed off.

So he goes back to bed. It's not like more sleep will do anything, but he won't have to confront his mistake via consciousness.

But then remembers he probably has a schedule and what happened the last time he missed it. Also, the bed suddenly hardens into something like cement and Yixing’s not so stubborn as to ignore that. 

So he gets back out of bed. 

If this were a normal day, he would be sulkily getting up, trudging to the kitchen to get a small breakfast. He’d probably have some sort of conversation with his mother, whether it was a scolding or a debate or, on occasion, a discourse that didn’t involve argument. Though, despite the tendency of opposition, Yixing still loves his mother, and he knows she loves him too. It’s just Cat she doesn’t love. And besides, he knows it’s far more beneficial to his person to sometimes suck it up and do what she says, even if she’s wrong. 

The only thing he’s doing normally is searching for food. Slipping on the only pair of shoes he has (Nikes– perhaps they sponsor EXO?), he exits into the hall. 

The chaos of the last three days had left Yixing defenseless. Trying to navigate his way around a spaceship and strangers and too-advanced technology gave him little time to reminisce life back on Earth. However, now he’s free – term used lightly – and finally able to roam the curious place and compare it to everything he had ever thought. Yixing is over _this doesn't make sense_ and is now testing the waters of _so you do it like this._ It’s not like he hasn’t done it before. All babies go through _so you do it like this._ It’s just that they usually don’t again. That is why it’s quite frustrating to learn this new rulebook, especially when he had the one previous so well read. But what other choice does he have? 

He decides to kill two birds with one stone. With wandering around the place, he’ll hopefully be able to 1) navigate critical areas (food, please!), and 2) complete his list of things wrong with the people here. He doesn’t have it on anything, but he does know that he’s going to say that Baekhyun is obnoxious and Jongin is lacking intellect. If he does acquire paper, he’ll write it in very messy Mandarin so he can remember it, it’ll be therapeutic like a diary(?), and – likely – the others won’t be able to read it. The only perk of being the minority here. Whether he’ll first find something or bump into another person he doesn’t know, but what he does know is that those yellow and black stripes bordering the ceiling are very interesting and maybe he should start counting them so he knows how many there are… 

Yixing is at two-hundred and sixty eight when he loses count because he gets distracted by an opening door. He stops, hoping to backtrack and not lose all his progress but it’s fruitless. He forgot whether he was at sixty seven or sixty nine. On his way, he had encountered two bathrooms and one office and seven storage units. No people. 

Oh yeah, about that opening door–

“Yixing!” A loud voice yells from within. 

It’s the same room he had pretended to faint in, but this time it’s only Jongdae, sitting criss-cross against the coffee table with a controller in his hands. Ignoring his instinct to turn and book it, Yixing enters, sitting also criss-cross a couple feet away. Jongdae is half-focused on him and half-focused on some sort of racing game. 

“What’s up, man?” He greets.

Following social etiquette, Yixing says, “Nothing.” And then goes to elaborate when–

_ZAP!_

The sharp pain is a total surprise, making him bang his elbow on the side of the table dangerously close to the corner. He grits his teeth as his arm burns, doing all he can not to scream. _God dammit!_ That wasn’t even a lie– well, it was, but– _this isn’t fair!_

When he regains full consciousness, he sees Jongdae has paused the game. His oddly straight eyebrows are raised in concern. 

“I was exploring the place…” Yixing’s voice is strained as he holds onto his dear elbow. Please don’t let it fall off. Figuratively speaking, of course. It won’t fall off. Probably.

It takes Jongdae a moment (maybe he was also thinking how unjust the bracelet is to Yixing), but he eventually lets out a wry laugh. “Oh, jesus. You got shocked from just _that?_ ”

“What does it look like?” Yixing didn’t mean for it to come out like that, but it sort of just did. 

Instead of taking offense, Jongdae says, “That’s weird. When I had my bracelet, it was never that bad. Same with everyone else. Most people only got shocked like, five times. In the whole month.” 

“...” No matter how long Yixing stares at him, Jongdae’s face remains innocent. So he’s actually telling the truth. Unless he and the others are such good liars that they had evaded even the bracelet’s detection, but that’s extremely unlikely. But assuming this is true, why would _Yixing_ out of all people get the strictest regulations? Yes, he’s new, but so was everyone else at one time.

Speaking of _one time._

“How long have you been here?” He asks, and it takes Jongdae another moment because usually conversation doesn’t switch just like that; at least not without a comment to the previous statement that transitions into the next topic. 

Despite what he had anticipated, the answer still makes his heart drop.

“Around two years, probably a bit more...” Jongdae speaks casually, as if talking about the weather. “Why?”

“Just wondering…” 

_Two Years_. And _Probably A Bit More._

Yixing has been here for three days and he has already lost it. 

Is jumping ship an option?

“Anyways, what are you playing?” Yixing diverts from the subject so he doesn’t think himself into an ocean of tears. Now that he looks, there are actually two controllers plugged in, a multiplayer race split on the TV. Someone was just in here. Who? Unless Jongdae was playing with a ghost. That would usually be ridiculous, but Yixing doesn’t know what to think anymore.

“It’s like Mario kart.” Jongdae grows a fond smile, as if it’s his child or something. “But off-brand. Like, spaceship brand. Basically racing either robots or whoever joins. Wanna try?”

A tentative “Sure” seems to be enough for the bracelet as Yixing maneuvers over to the right of Jongdae, grabbing the controller and forgetting his questions of who was just playing with him and where did they go and why. The controller is nothing different than the ones back on earth, two parts for both hands and buttons on the top and sides. It plugs into one of the twelve holes in a monitor he has never seen before. What’s up with there being twelve of everything? Are there people still coming? Yixing imagines twelve college-aged guys huddled in front of a diminutive TV, shouting and chaos everywhere as they race each other for, like, a family-sized bag of hot cheetos or something. 

He shudders. 

If this were a normal day, Yixing probably wouldn’t be playing video games. He hasn’t played in a long time, ever since his mother took away his console and he never bothered to go out to the public places because he didn’t want to run into people he knew or sneak one in because he didn’t want to be kicked out of the house (...still happened anyway, though. And look where he is now!). The only gaming he got were those rare occasions at Namjoon’s house, but then Namjoon too lost his console from his also strict mother. But anyways, on an average day, Yixing would be attending his senior year of highschool. Probably bored out of his mind because he doesn’t exactly need to study that much to get passing grades. But ever since he had graduated, he had been spending the couple of months as a free man sleeping, exploring the city, going into pet shops and watching the animals (and getting weird stares because apparently no one watches hamsters for more than an hour), hanging out with Namjoon, reading, not putting pigeons in his pockets, petting that golden retriever that’s always chained outside this large office establishment, or acting impulsively on anything that struck his interest until he knew every single thing about it. 

But instead, he’s sitting on a spaceship in a college-dorm like room being shouted at. 

“Why aren’t you going?!”

The yell makes him flinch, and with it Yixing realizes the match has already started. He presses every button, quickly identifying which one is the drive and then he’s started onto a forest themed map. Funny, because he’s not anywhere near Earth right now. He suddenly misses nature. Especially that dead cactus in his room.

“Not to suck my own dick,” Jongdae seems to have the talent of running his mouth _and_ maintaining first place. “But I’m the best here at this game. So don’t feel so bad when you lose. I have never lost.” 

Yixing doesn’t reply, but focuses on the game. What he has picked up is that the red and yellow arrow tiled patches grant speed and he should drive over them. A glance to the map in the corner tells him he’s still far behind everyone though. There’s also the fraction 1/7 under it, which is not only a repeating decimal but also meaning he has six laps to go. Six laps to maybe not be eighth (last) place and maybe, if he’s lucky, catch up to Jongdae. But his confidence probably doesn’t come from nowhere, so he’s not so sure.

What Yixing also picks up is that Jongdae is so goddamn _loud._

It’s as if he’s obligated to narrate his whole journey via sound effects. He starkly contrasts with the silent Yixing with his _RRRRRRRs_ for every corner (from that and getting distracted, though, Yixing realized he needs to move the joystick _before_ getting to the actual corner so he doesn’t bump into it) and _AHAs_ for every time he gets a powerup and _NEEEERRRRRs_ for when he laps someone and _EEEEEEEEs_ for when he merely misses a wall and–

 _“Shut up!”_ Yixing practically shouts, cutting him off in the middle of a _NEEEERRRRR._ He needs to focus. He has finally ascended fifth place, though Jongdae’s lapping everyone by two. Yixing’s at 2/7.

“No!” This is the cue for Jongdae to be even more annoying, and this solidifies what Yixing’s going to write. _Jongdae – loud and obnoxious._

Although it’s _just a video game_ , it quickly gets intense. Yixing’s catching up fast and, quite frankly, he _wants_ to win. It was a long time ago he had lost that fiery spirit in video games, but right here right now with aggravating Jongdae, it has been rekindled. The passion greets him like an old friend, gifting him with first place in no time. 

Jongdae gasps as if Yixing hadn’t been rear-ending him for the last three laps.

“No, no!... _AHA!”_ His shouting is merely background noise as Yixing focuses his eyes to the bright screen, maneuvering corners and dodging the missiles Jongdae’s throwing at him. He almost wants to rub it in, but doesn’t. He’s not a child.

But Jongdae apparently is.

They’re on the last of their final lap when a foot suddenly obscures Yixing’s vision. Caught off guard, Yixing removes a hand from the controller to shove the Christmas decorated sock away. 

“Stop!” He whines when the foot keeps persisting.

“Never!”

So Jongdae wants to play like this now, does he?

Yixing has two thoughts: _I’m not sinking down to his level._

And five seconds and another foot later: _maybe if I kick him hard enough he’ll black out._

The next time Jongdae kicks, Yixing captures his ankle under his arm and yanks it, ripping the other off balance and causing his head to smack against the table. “You bastard!” Only makes him smile. He’s turning another corner when suddenly, Jongdae pounces on him. 

Like, full blown WWE smackdowns him.

Yixing is forced into a mess of limbs, jutting knees, legs and trying to control hands just enough to persist. What makes it worse is that he had been hit _right_ in that spot where he can’t breathe for a good ten seconds, and excess physical strain with no cellular respiration do not mix. Jongdae’s trying to knee him in the balls while Yixing’s trying to A) dodge that and Dos) breathe and Three) do that thing where you twist the other’s arm around enough so it really hurts. It’s not working, but Yixing’s still winning. 

He can finally breathe when they both make it to the straightaway just before the finish line; before the 7/7 will become finished and the results will – probably, he hasn’t finished a match yet so he doesn’t know if the TV will subsequently blow up or not – show with Yixing in first place.

That’s until he’s licked.

All the way from his left wrist up to the rim of his T-shirt slides a moist, squelching muscle. Because of _what the fuck?!_ and _ewewewewew!_ , Yixing screeches, cringing away just enough for Jongdae to violently kick the controller out of his hands. It’s too harsh, as the cord rips out of the monitor and tails the controller like a comet to the wall opposite. A malicious laugh from the other as Yixing’s car completely stops. 

Yixing can only stare in despondency as the six other cars pass his. His jaw is slightly agape, wide eyes darting between his arm and the screen. He can't believe Jongdae really just went _there._

“I told you, I _always_ win.” Jongdae simpers, lips curling as he darts his tongue out like a snake.

Yixing cringes out of his stupor, looking to his arm once more. He can literally _see_ the wet mark, granting his skin a shimmering line. Disgusting. 

“You... you _licked_ me.” Yixing mutters, as if saying it out loud will verify that Jongdae _actually_ stooped that low. 

“I _won.”_

Yixing glares at him, but he tells himself he shouldn’t be surprised. These kinds of people are everywhere. It’s just that he has always avoided them. 

On one hand, he wants to give him a piece of his mind not because he’s upset he lost but because his vexation with the other had very quickly accumulated, but on the other hand, he wants to get to a sink ASAP.

So he does both.

“You’re _disgusting.”_ Yixing spits, “And here I was thinking you were so good because of _talent,_ not cheating.” Jongdae’s maniacal laughing quickly stops at the last part, and Yixing feels the slightest justified. But before the other can refute anything, he says, “Now where’s the closest sink?” 

“Someone’s angry…” Jongdae rolls his eyes, but Yixing’s not childish enough to give in to that. When Jongdae realizes that, he answers. “It’s in the kitchen.” 

“And where’s that?” Yixing looks to his sad, lonely, abandoned controller, wondering who else has lost to Jongdae via his appalling methods. 

“Well, take a left out of this room and then go straight a little, and it should be in this same hallway on the right. It’s literally called _Kitchen,_ so you won’t have trouble finding it. Think that’s where Jongin went.”

“Was he the one playing with you?”

“Yeah. He just won’t give it up. Been like this forever. I can’t tell if it’s because he’s passionate or actually dumb.”

Yixing knows which one it is, but decides not to say anything and just nod. He stands, awkwardly positioning his arm out so it doesn’t rub against his body as he heads to the exit. It’s four and a half steps. 

“By the way,” He turns before leaving, “you should know that _no one’s_ tongue should look like that. There’s something wrong with you.”

Jongdae’s _YAH!_ just barely escapes the closing doors, followed by the clash of metal on metal. Yixing smiles, satisfied. When it comes to being mean, he is an expert. It’s not that hard, really. Just think about saying something rude to someone else, and when, whilst scrolling through the options, that feeling of repulsion and _oh my god, I would never!_ comes, say that one! Maybe not the best for building healthy relationships, but good for intellect gathering and letting out that pent up anger from yesterday. 

See? Yixing _does_ have emotions. And he’s dealing with them in a one-hundred percent responsible and mature way. Using his _brain_ , not his hands! Take that, movie people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! this chapter was kind of short, as are the next two. however, they'll each feature yixing getting to know one of the super special members! this one was jongdae. next will be 
> 
> thank you for reading :D <333333333333333333333


	8. Soobap™

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing gets to know EXO's lovely youngest.

**ON THE** way to the kitchen, Yixing bumps into Minseok. But like, as in encounters him, not physically bumps into him because although he has been rejecting his glasses for the last six years he’s not _that_ blind.

“Oh, hey Yixing.” The cat-eyed boy greets. Yixing notices his feet stop moving. That means conversation. But he really wants to wash his arm. But he genuinely respects Minseok so far. 

But since when did he put other people above himself?

“Hi. Sorry, but I really have to go because your boyfriend licked me and no offense but I won't be able to function properly with his saliva on me so could you please direct me to the kitchens because also no offense but I don’t trust his judgement and I trust yours.”

Minseok had clearly expected just a _hello_ , so it takes him a couple wide-eyed seconds before a slow nod of understanding. And is that sympathy he sees?

“Well, if he said up and to the left, he’s correct.” He hesitates for a second, and Yixing can tell he’s debating whether to say something or not. Ultimately, he does.

“And I’m sorry about that.” Minseok says. _Again_ , with the people apologizing for each other thing! Unless Minseok explicitly directed Jongdae to lick Yixing, he shouldn’t be apologizing. “He’s just very… enthusiastic when it comes to video games. And not video games… And everything else…”

“You guys seem very opposite.” Yixing observes, seeing Minseok raise a brow but not really caring because he has a question, “Why do you even like him, if so?”

Fortunately, Minseok doesn’t take offense to this. Or at least, Yixing doesn’t see it. “I can’t say you’re wrong. But we compliment each other, I guess. And he does have parts about him I like.” 

Randomly, Yixing blinks hard because he has something in his eye, but apparently Minseok takes it the wrong way because he turns red and stutters, “Wait– no, no, I didn’t mean it like _that_. Seriously. I meant personality…” And Yixing stares because he’s confused at what just happened, but apparently Minseok also takes this the wrong way because, “Okay, I actually have to go– appointment with… bathroom… yeah, okay, bye!” 

And then Yixing’s left in the hall, staring after the rather fast walking boy. Why did he get so nervous all of the sudden?

A good ten seconds later, everything clicks, and he releases a drawn out _“Oooooooh.”_

Jesus, he gets really obvious when he’s nervous, Yixing thinks. He completely lost his cool. But imagine if there were actually appointments with bathrooms. If there was an establishment so stringent on organization that individuals had to schedule when they’d release their bodily fluids. It would probably have to be in correspondence to whenever they ate, which meant everyone would have to have different eating times, but the rations and amount of people and lunches depended on the type of establishment and its hours and most importantly how many bathrooms and toilets (and urinals for the dudes) per bathroom. But then again, digestion is subject so they’d first have to identify each and every worker and how long it would take for them to have to use the bathroom after eating. And they’d also have to eat the same thing every day.

 _No,_ he decides. This is all too difficult. Just destroy the establishment.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Yixing knows he’s at the kitchen because he sees the sign **KITCHEN_5013** on the left side of the door along with the lock pad. At the same moment, his stomach lets out a ravenous growl. Great timing.

Wait, no.

He doesn’t know the passcode.

Not great timing.

For a moment, he considers knocking, but figures it’s fruitless because those metal doors are at least a foot thick. Overkill, if you ask him. But since when has his opinion mattered here?

First, he tries _EXO_. A red circle lights up around the entered passcode, clearing his entry. Then, he tries _EXO9_. The same result. Then, he tries random variations of the phrase _EXO_ , like _E–X-O, EXO_9, OXE, EEXXOO, EXO_, _EXO_, E_X_O, 9OXE, FUCKYOUEXO,_ but they’re all wrong. Shouldn’t public areas have a passcode available to all the workers? Especially since Yixing’s one of the Chosen Ones to save the universe? Why hasn't he been told? He was brought against his will, so he can’t be thought an infiltrator! And why does it even _have_ a passcode? What is there to protect in the kitchen? And besides, who would even invade the spaceship? _Another_ group of galactic warriors? That’s ridiculous!

Right...?

Yixing sighs when the forty-third attempt to open the door _(EXO_RF)_ reciprocates a red light. His patience has been slowly abrading, getting to the point where the balance between _I can guess this_ and _I will go find someone to help_ evens out and begins to teeter towards the latter. However, he really doesn’t want to walk _all_ that way to potentially find one of the eight others in this unnavigable place. Why does everything here have to suck so much?!

When he gets to one hundred and ninety-six, Yixing gives up. He turns his back to the door, slumping down against it in defeat. If all varieties of _EXO_ and _RF_ and _9_ and _05_ and _I want to die_ won’t work, then he doesn’t know what will. He’ll just wait until someone comes, no matter how long it takes. He wouldn’t exactly mind if he withered away here, either. 

If he had known that sitting down would make the door open right up, he would’ve given up a long time ago.

Wait, no, that’s not it.

“Yixing?” A brusque voice calls from within. 

Mentioned sits up from where the opening doors had left him to fall, deciding that he can wither away another time. Turning, he sees Sehun, brows raised in confusion. He’s cutting vegetables, but now his hand stills on the knife. Yixing stands, casually entering.

“What’s the passcode to that thing?” He asks as he briskly finds a sink, fumbling around for the soap. “I have been trying it for _too_ long.”

“Oh, it doesn’t work.”

Yixing turns. “What?”

Sehun shrugs, “I don’t know. The password got changed and no one remembered or something. Why didn’t you just knock?”

“...” Sometimes, Yixing is at the top of his Hate List™.

“I didn’t think it would be heard, and I wasn’t sure if anyone was in here.” He sighs, finally refocusing when _where the hell is the soap?!_

“Where’s the soap?”

Sehun gives him a funny look before answering. “There’s none in here.”

_‘Where’s the closest sink?’_

_‘Could you please direct me to the kitchens?’_

Yixing _really_ should’ve specified.

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes. You can check the cabinets if you want.”

For a desperate five minutes, Yixing scours the kitchen. Whilst cutting onions and piling them amongst a bunch of other vegetables, Sehun watches, miraculously not cutting a finger off or anything because Yixing doesn’t hear him scream. He checks every single of the thirty cabinets, sweeping them front to back and rummaging through every single drawer to find no soap. Not even dish soap! He lets out a yelp when he on purpose slams a cabinet that in turn accidentally slams his finger. Sehun stares and Yixing feels his face heat up.

“I’m having a really shitty day.” He explains as he settles for the good old H2O. It’s basically useless. Jongdae’s saliva has definitely sunk into his skin by now, giving him whatever diseases he carries. Hopefully something quick and painless. Please don’t let it be AIDS. If he was HIV positive, would Minseok have told him? Was _that_ part of why he had gotten so nervous?!

“I can tell.” Sehun holds a _that sucks man_ smile, which comforts Yixing in the slightest. But then he looks at how Yixing’s awkwardly bending his whole arm is in the sink and now he looks confused.

“Why are you washing your arm?”

“I told you,” Yixing says as he maliciously scrubs at it with a washcloth he had found. The more it burns the more of Jongdae’s saliva is coming off, right? “Shitty day. Jongdae licked me.”

At least Sehun has the courtesy to try not to laugh. (Key word: Try).

Yixing rolls his eyes as he shuts off the water, dropping the washcloth in the sink and using several paper towels to dry himself (and chafe off what remains of his left arm). He then heads over to the island where Sehun’s cutting carrots. There are several medium sized bowls, filled with a certain ingredient. One celery, onions, broccoli, meat cubes, eggs, and something between celery and onion. Now that he looks, the large stove holds a large pot. On the counter bordering are a bunch of seasonings, each labeled in messy English Yixing can’t bother to try to read right now.

“What are you cooking?” He asks. He doesn’t see Sehun as the doing nice things for everyone type. In fact, he seems kind of cold. 

“This soup recipe Kyungsoo-hyung made.” Sehun nods to a list Yixing didn’t see until now. Cool, but it’s in–

“–English so he could help me learn it.” He says. 

At the statement, Yixing realizes Sehun is the only one who he has noticed use any kind of honorifics. 

“Are you the youngest here or something?” He asks.

Sehun looks up, surprised for some reason. “How did you know?”

Yixing shrugs. “I guessed because you’re the only one I have seen use _hyung_. Who’s the oldest here?”

“Minseok.” Sehun answers. “He’s twenty.”

The oldest here is _twenty?!_

Why is everyone so young? Yixing questions. If he were to choose a group of people to save the universe, the late teens / young adults would be his last choice. He’d probably pick older twenties or younger thirties because their brains are fully developed and they’ve probably gotten some sort of tertiary education and they’re still physically apt. 

“And how old are you?” 

“Sixteen.”

 _“Sixteen?”_ Yixing says out loud, because that’s how much he’s shocked. That means this guy is still in highschool, for Christ sakes! He’s a minor! At least when Yixing was kidnapped it was when his life was at a standstill. That must really suck. But better Sehun than him.

The sixteen year old looks back down abashedly at the cutting board, gathering the rest of the carrots and putting them into their bowl. 

“Yep.” The stolid voice contrasts with the clear shyness.

“Why are you embarrassed? It’s just your age.”

“I’m not.” He mutters.

“Okay.” Yixing decides not to argue, like those times he knows his mother is wrong but complies anyway because sometimes he needs some people points. Besides, maybe Sehun had taken his _‘Sixteen?’_ the wrong way. He follows the other to where he’s now scraping all the vegetable scraps into the pot of broth. 

“Why are you putting the remnants in there and not the actual ingredients?” He looks back to the island with the bowls of the actual vegetables he cut. Unless he was only cutting them _for_ the shitty parts?

“I’m using them to make the broth.” Sehun answers, and Yixing gets that he means he’s using the _remnants_ despite his bad wording. 

“Is this for everyone to eat?” He suddenly remembers how hungry he is. He then leaves Sehun for the cabinets, rummaging through all the similarly packaged space-foods. 

“Sure.” After putting the scraps in, he puts messy doses of each of the seasonings in the pot, referring to the notepad in his right hand. Yixing thinks back to how he’s in highschool. Not even that, but a _sophomore!_ Or late junior. 

“Are you a sophomore or a junior?” Usually, it has been Yixing the questions have been targeted at. The difference is refreshing.

“Sophomore.” Sehun says, but is quick to add, “But I’m supposed to be a junior.”

And Yixing again prods. “It seems like you’re ashamed of being little.”

“I’m _not.”_ He snaps. 

“Then are you ashamed for being held back a year?” Yixing raises a brow, looking away from the cabinet just in time to see Sehun shake his head. 

“You’re annoying, just so you know.” 

Yixing only smiles though, because it would be unfair of him to argue that he’s not being annoying right now. He hops down from the cabinet once finding a small package of _EXO_APPLE_S_ , pulling out a stool on the island. Minseok had told him the S stood for small, and all – packaged – meals here come in three sizes. He wants to save room for Sehun’s soup because it smells nice. Even if he’s a sophomore.

“I usually don’t get that.” Yixing gets comfortable on the stool. “I usually give it. I guess today really _is_ a shitty day.”

Sehun continues doing his chef stuff as he replies. “You’ve only been here for _days_. You can’t talk.”

“You’re only _sixteen_. You can’t talk.”

At the look of betrayal on Sehun’s face as he turns to him, Yixing laughs. It looks funny, but apparently Sehun doesn’t agree because he rolls his eyes.

“Also,” Yixing adds, “calling me annoying and being all cold and stuff doesn’t exactly make me feel welcomed.”

A shrug. “Whatever.” 

Suddenly, an inquiry surfaces. “Do you wear sunglasses?”

Sehun abruptly turns to him for the second time, that same perplexed countenance he had earlier. “What?”

Aha, Yixing gets it now. Because Sehun has some sort of insecurity issue, he copes with it by being a cool guy with his eyebrows and not caring attitude. So if he had sunglasses, that would manifest his character. (Or at least this is what he has grasped of Sehun). 

“They would fit you.” Yixing explains, “But anyway, you are in EXO-M, if I’m not wrong. What’s your agent name?” Maybe it sounds cool, too.

“Xuanxu.” He answers.

Oh my god, it’s perfect. Sehun definitely matches _mysterious_. Yixing doesn’t get how he himself matches _Lay,_ though. He swears, if anyone actually calls him that… It’s strange too, because he’s the only actual Chinese member of EXO-M yet he doesn’t have a Mandarin sounding agent name. 

“That fits you too.” He says, “It means, like, mysterious, in Mandarin.”

Sehun turns, a childlike excitement filling his eyes. “Really?”

 _Really?_ He didn’t know this?

“Yeah…” Yixing draws out the word, elaborating once he gets an inquisitive look. “Thought you would have been told.”

“RF doesn’t know Mandarin.”

His brows furrow. “Then why is there an EXO-M if it can’t even grasp the language?” Again, refusing to refer to robots with gender pronouns. 

“Because…” Yixing doesn’t miss how Sehun pauses. “There was another robot who helped her who knew it. But it was destroyed.”

“How?”

“Um.” Sehun seems about to fabricate something when the metal doors slide open. 

In enters Jongin, drenched in sweat. Jongdae had said he was going to the kitchen? Like an hour ago?

“Hi Yixing! Hi Sehun!” He waves excitedly. Yixing gives a small wave in return while Sehun just turns away, stirring his soup. 

Jongin heads right into the kitchen area, passing Sehun to rummage through the cabinets like Yixing had done earlier. Just as Yixing’s about to push on about how that Mandarin robot was destroyed, Sehun’s comment makes him completely forget it. “Could you maybe _not_ get near the food, please?”

Though he said _please,_ Yixing’s pretty sure all three of them know he isn’t asking.

“I’m just trying to find the cheetos!” Jongin whines, standing on his toes to reach the top cabinets like Yixing had.

“And I’m trying to keep your pig sweat out of the soup.” Sehun deftly secures the caps on all the seasonings. 

“I’m not a pig.” Jongin frowns as he leans dangerously over the pot to open a cabinet over the stove. In turn, Sehun shoves him away.

“They’re not up there. And you sure sweat like one.”

Yixing is almost one-hundred percent sure this is not one of those joke-fighting relationship dynamics, as he can literally feel the tension radiating off of them. It’s kind of discomforting considering the tension includes them standing chest to chest with their faces very close. He feels like he’s intruding.

Jongin is suddenly not happy go-lucky sunshine anymore, “Says the guy who can’t even beat me in a match.” 

Sehun looks visibly wounded by this one, but persists nonetheless, “Fighting isn’t everything, Jongjong. You need brain cells too.”

“You–“

“What’s wrong with you guys?” Yixing speaks up, breaking the tension like a meat cleaver to a lamp. Very awkwardly and doesn’t belong, but effective nonetheless. “Not as in yourselves, but why are you fighting?”

“We’re not fighting.” Is said at the same time as “We’re not fighting.”

 _“Hey!”_ Sehun glares to Jongin as Jongin glares to Sehun.

“You are fighting, though.” Yixing says. “You’re being rude and it doesn’t look like you are joking but rather making sly comments to get a reaction out of each other and it’s childish.” When they have nothing to say, he continues, “You aren’t thirteen year old girls. Just solve your problems up front and try to kill each other or something.”

The last part isn’t exactly the conventional kind of speech, but it’s definitely the most impactful. So impactful that the animosity lessens as the two exchange an uncomfortable glance. At the same time, Jongin finds the cheetos, then silently leaving.

“Or you could kill him in his sleep.” Yixing shrugs, staring at the shut doors. “Guerilla warfare is the best thing since sliced bread. Or maybe before. I don’t know what came first but I wanted to use the expression.”

Sehun gives him a look somewhere between _what is your problem_ and _I might take your advice_. But before Yixing can decide which, he turns back to the soup, not giving any comment. 

If this were a normal day, Yixing’s meals would consist of a trio: something small for breakfast unless his mother made something, then he’d eat a portion of that. Lunch he was pretty much on his own to scour the house for food or money to go buy food or his mother to make him food or scour Namjoon’s house and then maybe hang with Namjoon after. Maybe snacks in between, but dinner was always the highlight, courtesy to his mother. Yixing didn’t know where she got the motivation to cook a dinner every night fit for a royal family, but he wasn’t complaining. Whether it was samgyetang or bibimbap or japchae or kung pao or a mix of them and much more, Yixing ate until he felt like he was going to explode. This was also the only time a day he and his mother would actually sit down and conversate, as usually around dinner time is usually around where That God Damn Phone dies and he is obligated to talk to her. It usually goes well as long as the topic isn’t him. But the topic is usually him. 

Now, Yixing sits at the tall stool on the island with a bowl of _soobap_ in front of him (what Kyungsoo donned this recipe). 

Strangely enough, Sehun had prepared a bowl for him, and just as he sat a bit further down the table with his own, he realized Yixing didn’t have a spoon and actually went and got one for him.

“Aww, you’re so sweet.” Yixing gushes when Sehun places the spoon on top of the napkin that’s on top of the counter. He would’ve said _you’re too kind_ , but that would be an utter lie and he didn’t want to get shocked again. How many times has it been? He has lost count.

“Whatever.” 

Yixing glances to see him hunched over his own bowl, and then reverts his attention to the sweet aroma in front of him. He takes a tentative bite, for smells can be deceiving. Fortunately, this one isn’t. Sehun’s _soobap_ tastes just as good as it smells, homey flavor warming his mouth and reminding him of every single comforting thing ever. Like, _wow_. He’ll have to ask Kyungsoo for the recipe in a language he understands. Or maybe he’ll have to ask Kyungsoo to make it for him because Yixing typically uses only the microwave part of the kitchen and he doesn’t think that qualifies him for anything having to do with culinary arts. Or maybe just ask Sehun, but Kyungsoo is more approachable. Approachable as in he won’t cold-shoulder everything he says. 

Suddenly, Yixing remembers he had only said thanks in his head. “Thanks.” 

All he gets is a shrug in return, but whatever. If someone doesn’t want to be super friendly to Yixing, that’s their business. As long as they don’t go out of their way to be rude. The silence isn’t bad either, which gets him thinking, why is silence considered awkward in the first place? It’s just the absence of speech, and to be honest, Yixing would much rather have ‘awkward’ silence than small talk because small talk doesn’t do any good except make both parties incredibly bored and want to leave. (Most of the time, though. He didn’t mind Junmyeon, but Junmyeon wasn’t exactly the average small talker). To Yixing, the only situation silence is awkward is when the situation itself is awkward, like if you come home to the apartment you and your girlfriend share to find her naked in bed with another guy and a dog and all three just stare at you because you’re interrupting. _That’s_ awkward silence. 

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

On his way out, Yixing breaks the ten-minute long silence with a ‘bye.’ It’s weakly returned as he leaves. After the door shuts behind him, he digs a hand into his sweatpants pocket, checking that the piece of paper is still there. In the midst of Sehun and Jongin’s bickering, he had taken a piece from the middle of Sehun’s recipe notepad, working deftly to get all of those tiny scraps so nothing would be suspected (except if Sehun counts all of the pages on his notepad as a routinely thing and did just before Yixing had come in– in that case he’d have no defense).

What he’s going to write: for some he has an idea, and for others he is certain. The latter pertains to the more obvious, like Baekhyun’s provocative tendencies and Jongdae’s obnoxiousness and Sehun’s attitude and Jongin’s stupidity; while the afore pertains to those he hasn’t seen much, like Chanyeol who he’s talked to maybe once or Minseok who’s a pretty shy dude or Kyungsoo who is the same. It’s a linear pattern of acquaintance and dislike, however there is a counterexample: Junmyeon. Junmyeon is one of the people Yixing’s more familiar with yet can’t identify anything bad about him. He reminds Yixing of an idol, all super good looking and kind in every way, almost to the point of faux. There’s probably something though. It’ll just take a bit longer to find it. There’s always something in everyone.

But now that he has some intel, Yixing can devise how to cope with them. With Baekhyun, he’s pretty sure that the guy’s fishing for a reaction; for him to get annoyed. If he simply gives none, he’ll be bored and tone it down. Like the phrase he had learned during his intern at a daycare (second worst experience of his life, by the way): _acknowledging bad behavior only encourages it_. He had heard it, noted it, tried it with the toddlers, and has been using it on everyone/everything else ever since. Jongdae calls for more or less the same, except Yixing has a feeling that if he snaps at him, he might listen (while Baekhyun, from experience, would just laugh). Sehun is different. With him, Yixing found being friendly to work. Because the guy’s quiet, if Yixing were to be as well their mutual quietness would just make things hard to do, so he has to be the initiator of conversation. He also has a feeling that Sehun’s rigidness is just a front, as he had acted a similar way with Junmyeon’s parenting. As for Jongin, Yixing will just try to be patient. With this, though, he’ll have to be careful not to lie for the guy’s delicate feelings.

Also, now on the topic, should he write other things too? Like a diary, or something? Isn’t that what helps people not go crazy?

But nonetheless, this will improve his stay here (he refuses to refer to it as anything that would hint at permanent). Essentially, Yixing’s not bending himself to the will of the other person, but rather altering himself so they’ll most likely act accordingly to his will. Reverse psychology, in a way. Oh, and also the whole _this-will-make-me-feel-better-because-I-suck-at-anything-athletic thing,_ but he’s mostly over that by now. 

Now he’ll find someone–

_Beep!_

Oh, okay. Maybe he won’t. Yixing looks to his bracelet, which has turned on by itself and is flashing words across the screen. Bringing his wrist up to read it, big letters slide across tv-news style:

 _SCHEDULE: ZHANG YIXING TO_ **_ROOM SGGFTAIL_3302_ ** _AT 14:45:00EXT – ABILITY TRAINING_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as you probably noticed, i gave sehun 'xuanxu' as an agent name. i've also given names to the rest of the members who don't have different stage names from my amazing creativity! :D (chinese translator and google searching "exo nicknames")
> 
> also i may or may not do a double update this week (may or may not remember to do a double update this week)!!!
> 
> thank you for reading <3


	9. Baekhyun²

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Attempt one at getting this 'Cell Regeneration' thing down.

**AT FIRST** , a horrible premonition settles in Yixing’s stomach, but as soon as he sees ‘ability training’, he is relieved. He still isn’t keen on going, of course, but his power is healing and he suspects that doesn’t involve physical exertion. Maybe sitting in front of a dead thing for an hour and trying to find the right phrasing of _abra-cadabra._

Right after he stops walking, the message turns into an arrow. He was just thinking about directions, so this is great. A white arrow points to the way he was just coming from, so he turns and follows. He doesn’t need to keep his head up because there isn’t exactly anything nor anyone to bump into. 

After the interminable series of rights, lefts, backs, and go back and right because he went lefts, Yixing finally reaches **_ROOM SGGFTAIL_3302._** He wonders what the name means, because why would it just be random keyboard spam? Especially since this room seems to be of significance to the whole facility, like _Kitchen._ So how come it wouldn’t simply be _Gym?_ Or, to venture to the threshold of technical, Gym _nasium?_

Contrary to his anticipation, it’s empty. The vast area greets him with silence. All of the high-tec tools and weights and machines sit dormant. All of the lights are off, but once he continues they sense his presence and illuminate above him. He’s the only one in here. Maybe the whole group being there was just an occasion? 

As he realizes he doesn’t know where the power section is (he had forgotten a worrying amount Baekhyun’s tour), the bracelet lets out another beep. He looks down to also realize there are still arrows. This time though, it’s diagonal, in contrast to all of the straights and lefts and rights and backs. 

_How nice,_ Yixing thinks, but then unthinks because this is the same thing that has been _shocking_ him for no reason the last week. He heads to the wall of large stacked mats and recalls Kyungsoo going behind here because he had been curious about where it led. Now, he’ll find out.

The arrows stop once he goes far enough in the mat-tunnel to reach a door. It isn’t any different than the normal ones except it’s not hexagon shaped, but rather the traditional rectangle. When Yixing sees that there’s also still a keypad, he reconsiders this whole attending training thing. He’s not beefing with any more keypads. 

Suddenly, the bracelet beeps again:

 _WEGOTTHATPOWAH!!!1CHANYEOLSTOPTHATSASHItTYPASSCODErt_

He squints. Not because it’s too small and he can’t read it, but because _really? That’s_ the passcode? This place never fails to astonish him, yet sometimes it’s so normal and disappointing that it fucks with his mind. The word _realistic_ has begun to scare him because he can’t define it.

Upon entering, Yixing is confronted with a gargantuan room. It has to be at least _twice_ the size of all the other parts consolidated. A dark grey metal dominates most of the area except for the floor, which is a softer material, and part of the walls, which each hold a giant strip of mirror that reaches around all sides and up near the ceiling. Despite the brightness of the yellowish lights, the room is still rather dim. As he walks, his footsteps ricochet as if he were some sort of giant. He’s kind of tempted to say something to see how strong the echo is.

But then he sees Baekhyun.

As in the Baekhyun he H words. He’s garbed in some sort of martial arts robes as he sits criss-cross in the center of the room, a potted plant in front of him. As soon as he sees him, Baekhyun smiles widely. 

“Heya Yixing!” He calls, waving him over. “It’s _powah_ time!” 

No. No way. Not a chance.

Yixing turns, making a beeline for the exit when suddenly, Baekhyun appears in front of him. 

He nearly screams but tries to hold it back, resulting in an awkward choke which results in an even more awkward coughing fit. Baekhyun just stands there, laughing as he leans back against the door. His escape. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

 _Fun,_ Yixing thinks bitterly, glaring at the guy in his way. Baekhyun crosses his arms, and that’s when Yixing realizes he isn’t wearing the same thing he was literally five seconds ago. And now that he thinks about it, the voice didn’t come from this way either.

His head snaps back to the center of the room to _see Baekhyun_. His eyes widen, backing up as he rubbernecks between the Baekhyun on the floor and the Baekhyun at the door. There are _two_ of them. 

In the midst of internal panic and _hey that rhymes_ , a helpful memory appears:

 _‘So what I did yesterday, when I was right by your side but then in the room, just some simple optical manipulation.’_

Oh, okay, he remembers. The Baekhyun by the door is just a very complex, humanlike, terrifying trick o’ ze light via ze light-holder. Yixing doesn’t dare to think about what _harmful_ things this guy can do.

The second Baekhyun pushes himself off the doorway, a smirk remaining on his face as he skips to the real Baekhyun. They share a handshake so intricate that it’s definitely not the first time. Then they both turn, giving an expectant look, and what other choice does he have? Yixing sighs, reluctantly heading over.

“I am _not_ cooperating if there are more than one of you.” 

Baekhyun² frowns, bringing a finger to his eye to trace an invisible tear down his cheek as he withers away. A playful smile paints Baekhyun¹’s face as he looks at his clone and mutters in a high pitched voice, _“Mr. Byun… I don’t feel so good… noooooooo…”_

Can he handle even _one_ Baekhyun? 

“Anyways.” His attention diverts abruptly. “Welcome–“

“What are you wearing?” Yixing looks him up and down. If he were a lot older and uglier and had a mustache, he’d definitely be his old taekwondo instructor.

“Oh, this?” Baekhyun makes a gesture to his outfit like it’s nothing out of the ordinary, “Just thought I’d match the occasion.” 

A chill runs down his spine.

“Wait, are we fighting?” _Say no. Say no. Please say no,_ Yixing pleads because he doesn’t think losing the ounce of masculinity he has left is in his best interest. 

“Oh god no.” Baekhyun chuckles, a breath of relief that escapes Yixing almost loud enough for him to hear. “I wouldn’t want to fight _you._ No offense dude, but I’d be bored.”

“That clearly was meant to offend me.” Yixing states, unoffended. When Baekhyun sits back down, he does too. The potted plant is between them. When the other starts talking, Yixing notices that the rose inside is practically dead, and immediately puts two and two together. Baekhyun doesn’t even have to say that he–

“–Will be healing this plant. You have to figure out how to use your power. This is, like, the hardest part.” Baekhyun explains, poking the wilted flower with an abnormally lithe finger.

“How am I supposed to learn when I don’t have any resources?” Yixing asks. There must be a book on this or something, like _How To Use ‘Cellular Regeneration’ Or More Lamely Donned ‘Healing’ – By RF-05 For The Lovely Zhang Yixing._ And, speaking of that, shouldn’t this whole galactic superhero thing come with an instruction manual? Or a spaceship brochure? Guide? _Warning?_ The only helpful thing Yixing has gotten is a schedule and the time of day, which both come from the same device that tortures him any time he says something remotely out of line. 

“Yeah, that’s what I had thought. I mean, it seemed like a dead end, because heck, I kept getting yelled at to _make light_ and all I had was myself, and that’s impossible, right?” At some times, Baekhyun is so _normal,_ and even the slightest of relatable, but at others Yixing doesn’t know how an individual so hate-deserving exists. It’s weird how people do that. 

“You just have to try _everything._ You don’t feel it, but the power ball thingy that was put in you changes a lot of stuff in your body to make you capable of doing all this crazy stuff. It’s just that no one really knows what you have to do exactly so everyone finds out their own way.” 

That actually makes sense. Except for the whole insertion of the power, because Yixing has zero idea how that worked without his body trying to kick it out or getting sick. Plus, if it’s changing molecular structures and stuff, then shouldn’t there be _some_ sort of reaction felt?

And how _does_ ‘healing’ work? The robot said something along the lines of atomic absorbing and converting. Does that mean different compounds that enable absorption and conversion reactions entered him? And what possible molecule can the atoms in his body and the atoms in his environment make that can literally _heal_ something? Usually, there wouldn’t be this many question marks, but ever since Junmyeon had lifted that water Yixing doesn’t know what to believe about science anymore.

Oh my god, does that mean God is real?

If this were a normal day and Yixing were at school, he would never be thinking as hard as he is now. With highschool – and his whole educational career in general –, he breezed through without any significant effort. Thanks to his intellect and tendency to remember things until the test, he was able to get by without studying much and still score B’s and high C’s: passing, but not exceeding. He never liked the aspect of having to learn things he didn’t want to, so he simply put in the minimum so he’d graduate highschool and be able to get a job. However, when there was that rare thing that actually interested him (this happened mostly in his sciences), his mother would be barging into his room after the assignment or quiz, yelling _what has gotten into him?!_ because she had just used the public computers to check his grades and was baffled to see an A++. This definitely contributed to the tension between them, knowing Yixing was capable of perfection yet simply not wanting to. But no matter how foolish it seems to others, Yixing doesn’t care to use his potential. He wants to live with freedom, not success. That includes his life being his own. 

“Are you trying? Or are you just sitting there?” Breaks him from his stupor of biography.

“Just sitting here.” Yixing answers, then actually contemplating the matter at hand: what to try. He looks at the dead rose, 1) wondering why Baekhyun chose a rose but more importantly 2) wondering what he can do to make it healthy again (that’s not watering it).

He decides to do the classic hand-to-subject. Baekhyun does it, so why can’t he? He stretches his fingers out and places his palm facing the stem, waiting for some strange chilling (or orgasmic, that’d be cool…) sensation to rush through him and the flower to magically stand up straight. 

Nothing happens. 

It’s ironic, because usually Yixing would be anticipating the disappointing outcome instead of hoping the frivolous dream. _Remember, a different rulebook,_ he reminds himself as he positions his other hand at the flower as well, waiting for a reaction.

Still nothing.

He tries tensing his muscles, flexing his fingers, _willing_ the rose to heal. He envisions it springing up like a jack-in-the-box, blooming once again into its robust form. He changes the placing of his hands; maybe at the roots, maybe the flower part, or maybe he should pick up the whole pot. He even tries saying _“Heal”_ out loud, but nothing happens other than the sound of his beyond bored voice and Baekhyun’s giggle. He starts to get a headache.

Yixing not-so-gently puts the pot back on the floor. He puffs out his cheeks.

“I feel ridiculous.” 

Baekhyun snorts. “You look ridiculous.”

“You’re supposed to be helping me.” 

“Is my wise wisdom to no avail?”

Yixing thinks carefully because this is one of those negative statements and he doesn’t want to accidentally lie.

“No. It gave me an idea of what to try. But it’s not working.”

“Clearly.”

A vexed Yixing looks up at Baekhyun, whose lashes flutter innocently. Just as he is about to insult him, he thinks about what Sehun said earlier because it’s similar: _You’re annoying, just so you know._ But it’s also not similar, because Sehun doesn’t hate Yixing for kidnapping him and bringing him onto a spaceship and being irritating. It was just Sehun’s attitude and Yixing’s more-than-the-usual-which-is-not-at-all friendliness. So, in conclusion, let’s be mean to Baekhyun.

But wait! What about the whole _acknowledging bad–_

“Just so you’re informed, I really, really, really, really dislike you. I’m pretty sure it’s to the point of hate. Do you have _any_ idea how annoying you are? Do the people here tell you?”

Well, that goes against the plan. 

Usually, Yixing keeps this kind of information from the person. This is because he can avoid them, for the most part. However, it’s different on the spaceship, where he has no choice but to interact with Baekhyun, who he is about done with. Especially when he just _laughs,_ as if he thinks the exasperated look on Yixing’s face says he’s joking. He’s not, and he’s starting to feel that headache a little more. Small pounds sync with each of the other’s stunted intakes of breath.

 _“Aww,_ that– that’s the meanest thing anyone’s said to me!” Baekhyun coos, “Well, genuine mean thing. But come on, you know I’m just playing. Right?” 

“You’re giving me a headache.” Yixing says instead, taking advantage of the other’s momentary silence to get up and walk the good thirty seconds (the room is _huge)_ to one of the sides. He turns his back to the wall, sliding down and bringing his knees to his chest. Maybe this is where he can wither away!

And, of course, Baekhyun’s there in no time. No withering away.

“Come on, don’t be so sensitive.” He pokes, sitting down next to him. “Besides, you barely made a dent in your power.”

“It’s obvious I won’t anytime soon.” Yixing mutters, then realizing he probably sounds like a spoiled child and that would be okay however it wasn’t his intention, so, “And I have a headache so it would be better for me to do it another time.”

“But this time you’re with _meeeee~”_ Baekhyun grins, scooting close so their shoulders are touching.

Yixing scoots away.

Baekhyun scoots closer.

Yixing scoots away.

Baekhyun throws his arms around Yixing, bringing himself closer and giving a puppy-dog smile.

Yixing’s stomach flips.

“I’m going to throw up.” He suddenly says, pushing Baekhyun’s face away with a hand.

“Awwe, I’m not _that_ bad.” He pouts, chuckling.

“No, seriously–“ Yixing shoves him off, moving just in time to get on his knees, heaving merely once before a bunch of dark brown comes out. The shock is nearly as bad as how much his throat _burns,_ head stinging as he immediately backs away from the vomit. He hopes there isn’t anything on his clothes, but his vision is doing this weird thing so he can’t tell.

Same thing with his ears, because the only thing he hears before nothing is a sniffing sound and Baekhyun’s indignant, _“Bro!_ I don’t even smell bad!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi this was a little tiny baby chapter but I hope it was still good! Yixing takes a first crack at his power but it doesn't exactly work. Wonder why. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! When y'all comment and kudos my day -> made <3


	10. Dying But With Company (Pt.1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After vomiting and subsequently fainting, Yixing wakes up with a terrible sickness. Fortunately, he doesn't have to bear it all by himself.

**WAS IT** Jongin’s pig sweat? Or Jongdae’s saliva? Sehun’s soup? Baekhyun’s presence? His _power?_ Whatever it was, it made Yixing sick.

And once he finds out the cause, he’s going to keep a grudge. Forever. 

Being kidnapped and brought onto a spaceship and forced to not only save the universe but _exercise_ and _socialize_ was bad enough. And now getting throw-up sick to the point where he’s in bed all day suffering? 

Yixing wants to die. Please, weak immune system, this is the time to shine!

He doesn’t know when he was brought back to the EXO-M dorm, but it must’ve been some time at night because he vaguely remembers being carried into a sea of voices that instantly clamored in rejection (“Holy shit Baekhyun did you _kill_ him?!” “If he’s sick don’t bring him in here, moron!”), so he was then brought to some other place with a bed. Yixing had tried to ask why it was so long later Baekhyun did something, but was too out of it to criticize his reasoning of _I had to get backup_ by _why would backup take_ hours? 

He had passed out in the middle of the other’s apologetic monologue, sleeping for a couple hours until he woke up in a cold sweat just to throw up again. He knew he was sick with something, but his cloudy mind wasn’t ready to go investigate what, much less his body. He wanted so bad to itch the burn tearing at his throat, to flush out the traces of vomit in his mouth, to alleviate the headache that had returned right upon consciousness, but he was so exhausted to the point where most of his body was asleep. The feeling of static that he’d maybe get in his feet if he sat on the toilet too long completely took over his body, paralyzing him and giving no choice but to succumb to slumber.

He doesn’t know how long it’s been, because the hour he wakes up in ranges from 00:00:00 EXT to 00:00:00 EXT every single day, but he does know people have come in. He’s not sure of exactly who, but he specifically remembers Baekhyun (“Don’t you dare die I don’t need another death on my hands.”), Kyungsoo (“I’m hiding in here because Jongin’s too scared to get contaminated by you. Hopefully I don’t catch your death.”) and Jongdae (“Oh god, you’re so pale! Please don’t die.”). Whether it’s a robot nurse – he’s not sure what their function is though, because all they do is move around the room as if _that’s_ going to make him feel any better – or a member, he has been checked in on as if he actually matters. 

Well, maybe he does, considering the whole saving the universe thing. So what would happen if he _were_ to die?

The prospect of death has always intrigued him. It’s not because he thinks anything happens after death though. Despite how much better it would be to believe that there is an afterlife instead of decrepit void until the end of time, he just can’t bring himself to truly believe it. He has tried, as he once took up the Mexican belief that there is a Land of The Dead and he’d get to become a cool looking skeleton once deceased, but when November came and he sat and stared at a picture of his grandfather whilst holding a faux marigold for three hours and nothing happened, he gave up. He can’t believe in something he hasn’t seen for himself. It’s just who he is.

Why death intrigues him so much is for what he _does_ believe: the nothingness.

For how much his brain has been non-stop racing for the last nineteen years, Yixing wouldn’t be surprised if he dies young. It would be a nice balance, because he swears he’s had enough brain activity for a lifetime. He is curious as to what the _nothing_ feels like. To not have to tell himself to focus and shove his thoughts away like zipping an overflowing suitcase. However, the flaw in this is that if there were nothing, he wouldn’t be conscious of it. So nonetheless, he will _never_ know what it’s like to be dead. It sounds very lame, so maybe he just shouldn’t die until Randomness is ready to kill him off in a way that hopefully is not a car crash. 

But who is he kidding? He’s not going to die.

For the first time in however long, consciousness greets Yixing with a respite of refreshment. His brain works properly, he’s not waking up just to throw up, and he can open his eyes without getting an immediate headache. 

Except for when he sees someone _right_ there and flinches so hard that he smacks his head off the metal headboard. Then there’s a headache. 

“Oh!” Junmyeon jumps, hands flying to do something probably comforting but freezing and retracting. “God, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay.” Yixing mutters, but the pillow muffles him so it sounds more like, _“Tiffany gay.”_

He rolls over so he’s not on his stomach, angling his head to see the concerned look on the other’s face. Junmyeon is sitting in a chair pulled up to the bed and he looks kind of tired, but maybe that’s just Yixing’s own exhaustion clouding his vision. He’s glad it’s not anyone else.

But still.

“How are you–“

“Why are you–“

They both stop, and Yixing waits for Junmyeon to tell him to go first because that’s usually everyone’s first response for some reason. 

“You go first.”

“Okay.” Yixing says instead of _no, you, I insist._ “Why were you in here sitting on that chair staring at me?” 

Junmyeon’s face goes red, and Yixing would laugh if he didn’t feel his throat tearing itself apart. The almost offended look is almost cute as he stammers, “Well– when you put it like _that…_ I was just,” he picks up a tablet on the white table bordering the bed, “checking your vitals.” He shows a screen of _Candy Crush,_ except it’s EXO branded, just like that Mario Kart game. Is there some sort of brainwashing via video games going on here?

“My vitals?” Yixing half-smiles at the slip-up. “What does the ‘New High Score, Great job Junmoney two one two two’ mean?”

Junmoney2122 turns the screen to himself, eyes widening as he hurriedly swipes out of the app before shutting the device off, putting it back on the table. “It, um, means you’re very sick.” He answers, his awkward chuckle tapering into silence.

Yixing is about to press on the fact he never answered his question when an even bigger question makes him forget it. “Wait,” He says as if there’s someone needing to wait, “what made me sick?”

Wait (but don’t really), Junmyeon wouldn’t– 

“Sehun’s soup.” He answers. 

“Oh. Wait, how do you know?”

Wait, but Sehun’s soup tasted good! How could it have made him sick? Unless Jongin’s pig sweat actually did go in. But again, it’s just sweat, which is essentially H2O, and plenty of athletes have probably accidentally drunk it and not gotten sick. And it wasn't like Jongin’s armpits were pouring waterfalls into the stew or anything. Heck, Yixing doesn’t even remember him being that sweaty.

“Sehun’s sick too.”

Oh, there goes his _forever grudge_ part. Sehun suffering the same thing as him is bad enough. Maybe he’ll just yell at him.

“I’ve been going back and forth between you guys,” Junmyeon continues, “Sehun’s not taking it very well. I don’t know _what_ he did to that soup. He doesn’t seem to either.” 

“Does Jongin have poisonous sweat for any reason?”

Junmyeon blinks, eyebrows furrowing in _did I just hear that right?_ “What?”

“Sehun’s soup tasted fine and I watched the whole process and the only thing observable that could have made us sick was Jongin getting his sweat in the soup because he was reaching over the stove to get something.” Yixing explains. 

“Oh. Well, I don’t think so. Probably just a bad ingredient. The produce on the ship isn’t exactly the freshest. Or the realest.”

“Where is it from?” Considering he was _abducted_ to get here, it’s probably not from NASA or any other astronomical program. He has never heard of ‘EXO’ in his life (except for exothermic reactions, like how he’ll probably in the near future get so annoyed he’ll snap and do something he shouldn’t). 

“Exoplanet.” Junmyeon answers, “That’s where we get all our supplies. I don’t know where Exoplanet gets it though. Alien planets, or something. Next time we go there, by the way, I’ll have to show you the Tree of Life. Everything we’re working towards.”

“But anyways, I digress, how are you feeling?”

Yixing gives him a look, for isn’t it kind of obvious? Or is the vomit bucket beside the bed not enough of a hint? 

“Terrible.” He says, “My throat hurts and my stomach hurts and my head hurts but not as much now, and I’ve been non-stop sleeping which I don’t exactly mind but it’s still how I’m feeling.” 

Junmyeon finds a reason to smile _somewhere_ in that dialogue.

“Hey, your head doesn’t hurt as much. That’s good.”

Yixing gives him another look– look². Why is the guy so damn _positive?_ And nice? And good at maintaining eye-contact? What’s up with him? What’s his problem? Or, his lack of problem?

Junmyeon notices the stare. “What?”

“Nothing.” Yixing replies on reflex. 

There’s a millisecond to feel a huge regret during the _beep_ and then _ZAP,_ his head is yet again sent smacking into the headboard as thousands of needles stab every part of his body. But it’s worse, because he’s sick and weak and oh my _god_ it hurts so fucking much. He feels an unfamiliar sting in his head, of tears coming to his eyes. Is he crying?

“Oh, Yixing!” Junmyeon doesn’t hesitate to aid this time, and Yixing feels two hands on his face. “Are you okay?!”

In most cases, Yixing wouldn’t like this contact. He’d be shoving the hands away. But there’s something– well, not _something_ , he knows what it is: it’s that Junmyeon’s hands aren’t cold and clammy but rather warm and sort of soft and gentle and it brings the kind of comfort his mother does. There is, however, _something_ a bit different about the comfort.

But he’s in too much pain to tell.

“I…” Yixing is _beyond_ frustrated with this bracelet. Yes, he gets it, he shouldn’t lie. But it’s literally teaching him to not talk. It’s unjust and illogical and all the things that make him want to tear it to shreds, but the only thing he ends up tearing to shreds is the skin on his right wrist. 

Junmyeon frowns, suddenly retracting his hands and leaving Yixing’s face cold. “Hold on.” He says, turning somewhere out of his line of vision and returning with a pillow. 

“Here. Can you sit up?”

“Yes.” Yixing tries to ignore the tension in his veins fearing another jolt as he raises himself up on his elbows. He leans against the pillow as Junmyeon places it behind him.

“Thanks.”

“Yes, of course.” Junmyeon says, leaving yet again to go get something. He has to stand on his toes to reach one of the top shelves to grab a medicine bottle. There isn’t any colorful label, only all white with a simple _384714RE_ printed in… _Comic Sans?_

“Here, take this, it’ll make your throat feel better. You sound awful.” He tells him as he sets it on the table. “You’ll also feel tired, so I’ll leave you be. I’ve been neglecting Sehun for too long anyways. Love him to death, but _gosh_ he just won’t stop whining.” He chuckles, then heading to leave.

When he reaches the door, he turns, shooting finger guns. “I’ll be back.”

“I won’t be surprised.” Yixing replies, earning a mirthful smile before Junmyeon leaves. He takes the medicine right away, relishing in the cooling feeling it gives. Though Yixing usually wouldn’t take medicine from someone he doesn’t know that well, he reasons that Junmyeon is the person here least likely to drug him. He’s too nice. Like, seriously.

It’s weird.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Along with not being obnoxious, unbelievably braindead, rude, nor any of the other things Yixing has encountered here, Junmyeon is also not a liar.

The third next-time Yixing’s conscious (and throat feeling much better from that medicine), Junmyeon is back, this time not watching him in his sleep as he enters a little after he wakes.

“How are you feeling?” He asks upon entrance, heading to the other side of the room to grab the chair and position it next to the bed. 

“Better.” Yixing’s voice is clear as he speaks, unlike the mucus-filled half-missing one he had spoken with prior, “I haven’t thrown up today.” He also hasn’t been awake today, but he leaves that part out. 

“You sound better.” Junmyeon observes. The chair is big enough so he can sit on it criss-cross, though it makes him look like a child. “So, you did your power introduction training, right? How did it go?”

“Other than the vomiting,” This would usually be where he says _good_ because the leading clause hints at contrast, but that would be a lie. “Bad. I had to do it with Baekhyun and he decided a whole taekwondo getup was necessary and I made no progress and I had to do it with Baekhyun and did I say I had to do it with Baekhyun?”

“You had to do it with Baekhyun.” Junmyeon affirms with a giggle that’s maybe kind of cute. Just like the way he’s sitting is maybe kind of cute.

“It was bad.” Yixing frowns, then hesitating another syllable. Would Junmyeon be the kind of person to sympathize with him? Or would he, since Baekhyun has been here longer and almost definitely has a stronger bond with him, get all defensive and Yixing would be ostracized by the one person he thinks he can trust?

He decides to test the waters, because Junmyeon’s kindness seems so genuine that he’d have to be a _really_ good actor to fool Yixing’s eyes. 

“He keeps being so… _forward_. Annoying.” Yixing says carefully, “I mean, I don’t blame him because he’s good looking and charismatic and all so he’s probably used to getting an attitude like that brushed aside, but I don’t like it.” He takes a sharp breath as he looks to his bracelet. Heck, now he gets nervous whenever saying something mildly controversial. 

Surprisingly enough, Junmyeon’s countenance remains with the same concerned look. There isn’t any sudden offense and anger. To be honest, Yixing had been betting it sixty-forty. Fortunately, the sixty prevails.

“Yeah.” Junmyeon nods in understanding, “He’s just like that. I’m sorry about him. I would say to tell me if he’s bothering–“

“He’s bothering me too much.” Yixing breaks into a smile at Junmyeon’s laugh.

“Okay, moving on,” The leader says in response to his problem, “what do you mean you made no progress?”

“I mean I made no progress.” Yixing answers, “I sat in front of a potted plant for forty minutes putting my hands at different positions thinking and saying words and visualizing the almost dead thing rising back to health and nothing happened. Not even a hint that this whole power stuff is real.”

“At least now you know that all of those methods _won’t_ work. That’s progress.” Junmyeon says.

Yixing narrows his eyes at the guy. “Why do you have to be so positive?” 

“Makes life better.”

“Disagree, but okay.”

After Yixing says the last part, Junmyeon looks around the room, as if searching for something. His eyes land on the water bottle by Yixing’s bed. Unscrewing it (without his discretion!), he flicks a finger, and suddenly all of the water is out. It hovers slowly to his palms, compacted together in a cloud-like figure. He looks to him, quirking a perfect brow. 

“Yeah, that is exactly what I was doing,” Yixing gestures to his hands, “but nothing happened.”

Junmyeon begins to explain, “It’s not only finding the right motion, it’s also _believing_ that you can do it. All of your mental power has to genuinely believe you can heal that plant. Like all of my power believes I can move this water. And look what I can do with that.” He twists his fingers and the blob shapeshifts into a small bird, flapping its wings as it flies back to the water bottle’s opening. Like magic, the midair bird suddenly compacts into a stream, falling perfectly back into the bottle. Not a single drop is missed. Junmyeon closes the cap. 

“... That means I’ll never be able to.” Despite Yixing’s incredulity at the whole situation in the first place, he still feels that little bit of disappointment seep through. Just like with the afterlife, he can’t force himself to think something he doesn’t believe. He has accepted that powers are real, but can’t fathom using them _himself._

“Well when you think like _that_ you won’t.” Junmyeon’s voice then softens, “But I get it. Before I came here, I never thought I could use a _power,_ much less they existed. So I know where you’re coming from.” Apparently Yixing must’ve looked sad, because he continues with, “It’s okay. It won’t come in a day. Or a week. Or maybe a month…”

Suddenly, one of the questions (out of Yixing’s Too Long List of Questions That Are Often Forgotten) surfaces. 

“How long have you been here?” Yixing asks.

Junmyeon takes a moment to answer. “... Three years. I’ve been here the longest.”

Ah, three years. Three years, that’s cool. Yeah. Three years… 

Three. Years. 

Yixing looks up. _Three years._ A thousand and ninety-five days. Innumerable (for the top of his head which is already too much effort) weeks and hours and minutes and seconds… god, poor thing! Three years of your life wasting away in space, meanwhile none of your friends and family have any idea where you are and have probably given up trying to find out. Yixing can’t imagine himself in three years; being twenty-two here. He can’t imagine reaching legal drinking age here. He refuses. If they don’t have coffee here, they definitely won’t have alcohol. Jongdae’s _year and a half_ had left a sour taste, but this… why is Junmyeon still smiling? 

“Now you’re…”

“Twenty.” 

“That’s too long.” He blurts, but then has to continue because that’s a rather nebulous statement. “I can’t do three years. I don’t know how you have been doing this for three years. I… didn’t know what to expect coming here, but I definitely didn’t expect a long stay. Maybe a week. Let me go have a short adventure and then turns out it was all just a dream.” 

Junmyeon lets out a laugh somewhere between pity and exhaustion. 

“How do you do it?” Yixing, for once, asks a question regarding the upkeeping of emotional contentment. Obviously, he could do this on Earth, no matter the circumstances, because he knows how everything works. But it’s all different in space, with EXO, with the powers, the technology. Quite frankly, all the stress is taking a toll on him. He’s constantly anxious from the bracelet, in a bad mood from the people, exhausted from the training, frustrated with the way things work, and now sick. He just can’t win anything. Except for maybe Junmyeon’s proportionally pleasing face being there for most of his conscious duration.

“Well, by myself, I could never.” Junmyeon answers. “I would go insane, whether I’d drive myself crazy or the robots would… but it’s the people here that keep me grounded. Without everyone, I don’t know how I’d be.” 

Yixing’s face falters. Seriously? The people here? _Is_ he crazy?

“The _people_ here drive me crazy.” He says. “Maybe not all, like you, but I think I could get by without company.”

“Are you sure?” 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Yixing rarely says something without being certain about it. He knows he could survive without company because A) he has a fortitude like no other, B) for the most part, he has received only negativity from the company, and C) he does it on Earth, too, and the people here and on Earth are relatively the same.

“I mean, you couldn’t be certain unless you tried it.” Junmyeon says which completely contradicts the former paragraph. “Although you might not be the most social person on Earth, you’re still _with people._ You’re surrounded by them and that makes some sort of subconscious impact. Tell me, Yixing, do you have a best friend? Or someone you’re really close to?” 

“Yeah.” Namjoon pops up in his head (metaphorically, of course). Yixing wonders how confused he is, because how can his best friend of several years just suddenly _disappear_ without word? Especially when he was planning on crashing at his house for a couple days for his mother to calm down. Oh god, Yixing hopes he doesn’t go looking for him! He also hopes Namjoon had forgotten that half-sarcastic remark he made one time about if he were to suddenly disappear it was because he was kidnapped by the Mafia. But who is he kidding, Namjoon forgets nothing. That’s why he compliments Yixing’s goldfish memory so well.

He misses him.

Yixing knows this because as soon as he answers Junmyeon, there’s a pang in his chest. A release of that chemical called _sad, longing, regret,_ something along those lines, that permeates for a quick second before reality returns. Maybe it’s a shade darker, though. Like from #FFFFFF to #F5F5F5.

“Wouldn’t it suck to lose him forever?” 

“Haven’t I already?” It’s different once he says it out loud, because with the vocalization comes that pang again and god, here Yixing was thinking he missed his dead dog. But it’s nothing compared to this (sorry, Dog), because it’s not just one thing– it’s _everything._

When Junmyeon goes silent, giving him time to think, Yixing realizes he’s _wrong_. Like, incorrect. Mistaken. _Eganado._ He gets Junmyeon now. The people are the only authentic thing from Earth he has left. And the people here will inevitably have more value to him as time goes on, so he can only imagine how much Junmyeon loves them.

“Okay. I understand.” Yixing admits at last, catching Junmyeon off guard. He gets a surprised look from the other.

Yixing shrugs, which seems to Junmyeon like he is all casual but in reality he’s shrugging away that diminutive loss of pride. “What? I was wrong. I wasn’t thinking past the constant annoyance. It’s only human that someone would go crazy all alone.”

Junmyeon smiles, “Right. It’s like that quote, _as long as we have each other.”_

Yixing scoffs, earning an indignant laugh. 

“What’s so wrong with that?” Junmyeon’s brows raise, “It’s sweet.” 

“It’s generic.”

“So?”

“It’s unoriginal and too vague to capture the point.”

Junmyeon huffs. “Okay, fine. How about,” suddenly, his voice goes all monotone, _“in order to not go insane we must congregate with our own species for not only moral support but emotional and subconscious contentment.”_

And with his impish grin Yixing realizes.

“Are you… _mimicking_ me?” This time, Yixing’s voice isn’t monotone as it rises in slight offense. He doesn’t sound _that_ boring. Right? (Don’t answer that. This is _text,_ for god’s sake). 

“No, what makes you think that?” Junmyeon’s still smiling, and Yixing finds himself doing that as well. _Finds himself,_ because it’s involuntary until Junmyeon laughs and Yixing thinks _why_ and then realizes he’s maybe smiling too and looks away. 

“Alright, be that way.” Yixing crosses his arms, “But it _is_ a better quote. It encompasses the full meaning.”

Junmyeon scoffs. “I disagree.”

“Why?” Yixing decides he’s done being petty and turns back to face him. 

“Just because it’s more practical doesn’t mean it’s the right one. The right one should also rely on the emotion it evokes. The feeling. If it has _meaning_ to you, you know?”

“That was so cheesy.” And he’s looking away again, this time at the puke bucket settled on the table beside his headboard. “I think I’m going–“ Suddenly, he catches himself.

The bracelet seems to be working, after all. 

“God,” He looks to Junmyeon, “you almost made me be sarcastic and I would’ve gotten shocked and it would’ve been partially your fault.”

Junmyeon snorts into a chuckle and chuckles into a full-blown laugh. Or _LMAO,_ as the media-using population would don it. His laugh, not to steal what he had just said or anything, evokes emotion. Happy. For some reason, it makes Yixing happy. That maybe being here sick isn’t so bad. 

He’s the only one that can know that, though.

“You’re laughing at my pain that could have happened but didn’t. _Despicable.”_

Junmyeon laughs harder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! this was the double upload i was talking about
> 
> so here was basically all sickxing and junmoney2112, and you can bet it'll continue next chapter looking at the name of this ("pt.1")~ they're not too long so that's why i've double uploaded.
> 
> also, a general note: this story is VERY long. like, 250k words (yeah idk how it happened either). so as a result of this i do admit that the primary external conflict/main plot of story doesn't rly come into main focus till a bit later– but that's because these earlier parts are mostly focused on yixing's internal conflict and getting to know this place. however, that does not mean it's completely absent. if you haven't already, you'll /definitely/ see hints of problems! 
> 
> so thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to read and comment and stick with this!!!!!!! you make my heart sjefi29uewhr838r03 <3<3<3<3


	11. Dying But With Company (Pt. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "After vomiting and subsequently fainting, Yixing wakes up with a terrible sickness. Fortunately, he doesn't have to bear it all by himself." Except that it's part 2.

**YIXING ISN'T** surprised when the same black hair peeks into the door, followed by curious brows and inquiring eyes, but he’s not disappointed either. In fact, Junmyeon’s company is keeping him sane. He has been consistent with visiting him several times throughout the day, so much that Yixing wonders how often he has come to find him asleep. Nevertheless, without Junmyeon, Yixing would have to endure the awkward _healing but still not ready to go out of the room yet_ phase with no one to talk to but the robots whom he doesn’t understand. 

“College.” Is the first thing Junmyeon says, pulling up that same chair and facing it to the bed. 

“What?” Yixing doesn’t know how something that random came up. “Hello to you too.” 

“Sorry– that was abrupt.” Junmyeon chuckles, then explaining, “The other day you said the most practical way is the best way. And wouldn’t the most practical way for you to use that brain of yours be to easily get a degree and good paying job so you won’t plummet socially and economically and feel useless and kill yourself?”

Ah, so Junmyeon remembers the Meaning of Life. 

“Why are you in here so much?” Yixing asks instead of answering the question. “Don’t you have leader business to attend to?”

“Not currently.”

“Okay, but still. Isn’t this a waste of your time?”

“No.” Junmyeon seems almost offended, which is weird because Yixing should be the one offended, if anything. He just called himself a waste of Junmyeon’s time!

“What do you mean, _no?”_

Junmyeon gives him a funny look before breaking into a small smile, “You’re more interesting of a person than you think, Yixing. And a hell of a good conversationalist.” 

“That’s a first.” Yixing mumbles. But, now that he thinks about it, he’s surprised. Despite knowing Junmyeon for a week, he is already having discourse with him at almost the same depth of what he and Namjoon have. Maybe he should thank Randomness for providing Junmyeon with such good _I’m-going-to-force-you-to-talk-to-me-with-my-enticing-questions-and-even-more-enticing-looks,_ because now thinking to their other conversation, maybe Yixing isn’t going crazy _because_ he still gets to speak his mind about more than small-talk worthy stuff.

Thanks, Junmyeon.

“Really? Strange, but anyways, college.” Junmyeon diverts. “Why don’t you want to go?”

“Why are you interested?”

Junmyeon gives him a blank stare, then speaking when Yixing doesn’t pipe up with any kind of _oh, right._

“Aren’t we past asking why I’m interested in you?”

“Oh.” Yixing says. “Okay. Wasn’t informed.” 

He then gathers the dialogue he recites to his mother every time she bitches at him for not wanting tertiary education. “I already have a plan that doesn’t involve having to take on the burden of college.”

“Which is?”

“Working at a pet shop. I know how to take care of most animals because I used to intern as a kid and the wage is enough to keep me stable and I like animals for the most part except chinchillas and I don’t have to go to college.”

“Okay, that makes sense.” Junmyeon nods, “But what I don’t get is your repulsion to go to college. What’s so bad about it?”

Yixing almost laughs at the question. 

“It’s a waste. I have to pay a bunch of money, or maybe less because of a scholarship, but still a bunch of money, to attend a school that I have to also pay for everything in. And I’d have to pay for classes I don’t even want to take because I never took any AP courses in highschool because like I said I have a plan. Also, there are so many things to learn and I know I’d end up getting into an even worse debt because I don’t know what I want to do. And I don’t want to put in all of that effort.”

“Why?” 

“Because the outcome is the same. Just with a little more money.” He answers, “And you’re wrong. My plan is more practical, because I won’t be in debt nor will I be sleep-deprived and stressed for a school.”

“You won’t be sleep-deprived and stressed in the long run. _And_ although you’ll have debts, you’ll have more money. Are you scared of failing or something?”

Yixing looks to him, but he doesn’t seem like he’s joking. _Scared of failing_ has never occurred to Yixing, because there wasn’t one thing he _failed_ in highschool, despite his low effort. He just doesn’t want to go to college because of the work, not because he’s afraid he’ll fail. 

“No. I just don’t want the workload.”

“Alright, I understand you...” Junmyeon trails off and Yixing anticipates that he’s going to bring up another point. “It’s just weird to think about. You’re so smart...”

 _“And you have all this potential you’re wasting.”_ The mocking tone gets Junmyeon’s attention. Yixing nods affirmatively, “That is just what my mom says. I don’t think intelligent people should be obligated to do all of these things. They are normal people too. So why are they expected to save the world? Isn’t it discrimination if society doesn’t allow them to just do their own thing?”

“... I never thought about it that way.” Junmyeon admits. “But still, it’s not about the world. It’s about _you._ I just thought you’d be happier doing something that uses your intellect. And being somewhere with like-minded people.”

True, like how Yixing prefers talking to Junmyeon rather than Jongin. But it’s still too much work to get there. And it’s only _one_ benefit.

“But I understand.” Junmyeon says, “I still disagree, but I just wanted to see your side.”

“Thanks for worrying about my future. I’ve known you for a week.” Yixing gets terrified for a moment of the sarcasm, but he makes it without a beep. Just a racing heart. 

Junmyeon laughs, “It’s different in space. It’s easier for us all to just be best friends right away.”

“Like Minseok and Jongdae.” 

“And maybe even find love!” Junmyeon exclaims like it’s some sort of revelation, “Like Minseok and Jongdae. It took them a good four months to get together, but they’ve been happy ever since.”

“What a coincidence.” Yixing remarks, “To meet _‘_ __t_ he love of your life’ _ being abducted by a space robot organization.”

Junmyeon shrugs. “Crazy things happen. Even love.”

 _“Love.”_ Yixing thinks back to the other night and remembers that Junmyeon is one of those sappy people. He decides to share his opinion. “Like college. Too much effort. Especially since more than half the population consists of not very smart people and they make it so difficult to just _confess feelings_ and _date_ and _have sex_ and all that.”

“Yeah, some of that I suppose…” Junmyeon looks like he’s genuinely thinking about this, “But you have to remember that attraction does some weird things.”

“I do.” Yixing says. He has experienced attraction before. He’s not some robot. “And it’s idiocy and lack of self-control that makes it all worse. Also, do you have a dog?” 

Junmyeon blinks, lost.

“Did you just ask if I have a dog?”

“Yes. You seem like the person to have a dog.”

“Why?”

“Because...” Yixing thinks of how to word a sensation. “You’re all warm and positive and kind like someone who would have an equally warm and positive and kind golden retriever.”

This time, Junmyeon’s smile is small; almost shy. “Thanks, but no, actually. I’m more of a cat person. I had four.”

“Really?” Yixing’s surprised. Not at the four cats, but the cat person thing. He was almost _sure_ Junmyeon would be a dog person. No– he _was_ sure. 

“Yeah.” Junmyeon looks up as he reminisces, “Hayani, Myeoni, and Ginger. I was their favourite in the house, and they’d always sleep in my room and be all over my furniture and distract me when I was studying. My sisters were always jealous, but what they didn’t get was that trapping them in their rooms all day didn’t _accustom_ them. It terrified them.”

Yixing silently applauds his choice of name (as he had categorized two out of three by color), but then he realizes this is the first thing Junmyeon has told him about himself _._ It’s been about only Yixing the whole time. Usually he’d realize these kinds of things sooner.

For some reason, he doesn’t feel completely repulsed by learning a bit more about Junmyeon. 

“Sisters?” 

“Yeah.” Junmyeon sighs, but Yixing’s not so sure it’s from the _yep-I-have-siblings_ disappointment, “Jiwoo and Jihyo. Both younger, but Jihyo liked to act like she was the oldest even though she was eight months younger. Well, not _was_ , _is_ – god, I’ve been here for too long.” The laugh is kind of sad, but Junmyeon’s smile doesn’t break. 

“Maybe we’ll all hit the three year mark.” Yixing didn’t mean it as a joke but Junmyeon still chuckles anyway. 

“Maybe.”

Three years that Junmyeon hasn’t lived his life for. Yixing wonders, “Were _you_ going to college? Or, what were you going to do?”

“Yes, was planning on it. College. I was going to major in psychology.” 

“That’s a waste of money.” And he thinks college _itself_ is prodigal.

“I had money to waste. My parents had good positions in that corporate business stuff. So I was really well off.”

Yixing thinks to his lower-middle class self, and almost laughs, because if anything, he himself has the attitude of someone privileged. He would’ve estimated Junmyeon to be around where he is economically. From past experience, the rich kids he met acted rather entitled. 

However, Junmyeon’s richness brings up a burning question.

“Do you guys know the Mafia?”

“What?” Junmyeon blinks, “Because we’re _wealthy?”_

“Yeah.” Yixing says like it’s obvious (because it is!). “If I were the Mafia, I would go after rich– or, _wealthy_ families. Not that I am. But they have always interested me. Especially with how secretive they are. Everyone knows they exist, but no one knows how or where.”

“No. I’ve never had anything to do with the Mafia.” Junmyeon chuckles. “However, there was this one time...” 

And then Junmyeon goes on to explain how his sister, Jiwoo, who's cute and innocent except for when it comes to keeping the cats hostage in her room, had almost gotten kidnapped by a stranger in a foreign city. His parents had decided to bring their children to Madrid for a business meeting, and during a late-night excursion Junmyeon had lost his youngest sister. He found her with an older woman, who was rather reluctant to give her back and insisted to bring her to ‘safety’ without him, the ‘meddling teen’. With this, Yixing shares the time he had tried taking a baby goose and then had to get stitches on his forehead (“So you haven’t always been this smart, huh?” “No... What? Why are you looking at me like that?”).

What’s amazing about the whole thing is how natural it is. The dialogue flows as if Yixing were talking to Namjoon, tackling subject after subject despite the nearly stranger status. However, as it continues, Yixing sees the wall of anonymity as less and less of a barrier, and more and more of an opportunity. He considers himself lucky, for he _never_ clicks with people like this.

Thanks, Randomness.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Maybe two days later, when Yixing is in the best condition he has been so far except for sleeping all the damn time – which, like the last couple of days, he really doesn’t mind –, Junmyeon knocks.

Wait, no? Junmyeon doesn’t knock.

Yixing sits up, putting down the tablet he was trying to get into ( _Wrong Password. Please try again in 1845 minutes)_ and yells, “Come in! Unless you’re Baekhyun! Then don’t, please!”

To his surprise, it’s Sehun who enters, shutting the door silently and making his way to the bed. His gaze is trained towards his feet, and to say he looks awkward would be a complete understatement.

It takes a moment, and it’s kind of quiet, but there’s no doubt that it is, “I’m sorry.” That leaves the younger’s mouth. 

Yixing blinks, searching his brain for what could Sehun possibly be–

Oh, yeah. The soup. Didn’t he say he was never going to forgive him? Or did he just think that? Crap, did he say it _to_ Sehun? Is that why he’s looking like a hit child? 

“Did I tell you that I was never going to forgive you?” Yixing asks.

The other looks up in perplexion. “What?” 

“Did I say something to you about it? Or are you just being strangely shy for some other reason?”

Sehun furrows his brows, expression somewhere between anger and confusion. _Cangry._ “Uh, no. You didn’t. I just came to apologize because the soup made you sick.”

“Okay.” Yixing says, unaffected. What is the point of apologies if there isn’t any justice served? Yixing prefers justice, not fake sympathy or pity. Or real sympathy or pity, for that matter. Equality triumphs them all. However, he already has his justice, considering Sehun got sick as well. “Did someone tell you to apologize?”

“No.” Sehun shuffles his feet. He probably wants to leave. That sucks. 

“Okay, well, consider it even. You got sick too.” Yixing says. “However, if you happened to not get sick, then I wouldn’t forgive you until you got sick.” 

“Is an apology not enough?”

“Nope.” Yixing smiles angelically. “You could be lying for all I know.”

“I’m not.” A defensive tone edges his voice.

“I didn’t say you were. But what was it that got us sick, anyway?” 

Sehun shrugs, “I don’t know. I did everything correct.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Positive?”

“I think so.”

“Did you double check?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you–“ 

“Okay, _maybe_ the broth was bad.” Sehun gives in, and Yixing specifically remembers how he had made it because it was something foreign to his knowledge on cooking. “I don’t think I was supposed to put the raw chicken in it.” 

Yixing’s eyes widen. He had made _that_ dumb of a mistake?!

“You–“

“I know, I’m sorry.” Sehun’s voice turns into something of a whine, “I didn’t think it would affect it because it was boiling it and isn’t that supposed to kill all of the bad stuff?”

“Evidently not.” 

“Okay, whatever. Sorry.” Sehun mumbles, turning to exit the room. 

“Wait.” Yixing calls, and he stops at the doorway. He doesn’t bother to turn. In most cases, Yixing would be annoyed by the blatant disrespect. But for some reason, Sehun’s stubbornness is almost endearing. Like a child’s. Well, bad comparison, because Yixing absolutely _loathes_ children– but maybe not Sehun. 

“Don’t worry about it.” He says, surprised at himself for being so kind. God, this place is making him a softie. And was that just _sympathy_ he felt?! Or empathy? He had never bothered to google the difference.

“It seems stressful enough to constantly uphold this ‘cool guy’ thing you’ve got going on. But this time, actually don’t stress it.”

Sehun looks at him like he's a crazy person (psychoanalyzer).

Ah, back to normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here was a lil baby chapter which was basically a continuation~ however, yixing's healthy now, so expect the action to pick up next chapter!
> 
> and i dont mean to be redundant and thank you guys for reading every single damn chapter but...
> 
> thank u for reading :D


	12. Fuck, he's going to die!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just because Yixing's not dying in bed doesn't mean he's ready for a whole fucking mission, but the universe seems to think otherwise.

**THE NEXT** time Yixing wakes, it’s as if the world has regained color. 

He sits up without gravity and fatigue immediately begging him to lay back down, and can stand on his own two feet without wobbling. There’s no headache despite the fluorescent lights, and the only thing feeling off is the reminiscence of nausea in his stomach, dissipating like a tide. 

_Did I take something?_ Yixing wonders as he scans the tables on either side of the headboard, finding nothing but the vomit bucket and several empty water bottles. Maybe his red blood cells finally decided to man up, or something. So now what? He’s staring at the grey wall, feeling better enough to be bored all day so he should leave, however not better enough to indulge in social interaction (Junmyeon doesn’t count). Yixing looks to the door, hesitating for a few seconds before deciding that it’s worth it to go because there is a small chance he’ll bump into someone considering it’s midday and he is pretty sure everyone is occupied with their schedules. He’ll head to the EXO-M dorm and stay there for the rest of the day. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

He saunters to the exit, almost vigilantly as if the door could burst open with anyone any second, screaming at him to attend to a schedule or barraging him with questions. Hopefully they were filled in, because Yixing doesn’t want to keep recalling that shitty day just to inform them of how he had gotten sick and therefore went MIA for the past week.

Luckily, there’s no one behind the door, so now Yixing can look right, left, and then come to the conclusion that he still has zero fucking idea where he’s going. 

Despite his time here, Yixing still can’t navigate a single thing on the ship besides recognizing the interior of some of the rooms, but even that is all similar: white or light grey walls, same colored ceiling, metal floors, fluorescent hospital-like lighting. The only distinct difference between any of the rooms is the contents. And as to where they are… they could be in different galaxies for all he knows. 

At last, Yixing decides left, because right is overrated and right is the direction that took him to where he met Byun Baekhyun and the end of everything he knew. Maybe he’ll never go right again, not because he believes it’s a bad omen, because that stuff is bullshit, but out of spite against the cruel universe. Heck, he’ll even start being left-handed!

Out of vain hope, he looks to his bracelet (on his right), hoping it can read his mind and do that arrow directing thing to lead him to the dormitory. Unfortunately, there is only a black screen that just shows him _WELCOME_ and the time when he presses on it. When is he getting that lie thing off again? If he sees the place where he met RF_05, he’ll be sure to stop by and ask (read: beg on his hands and knees until it relents or destroys him). 

Surprisingly enough, Yixing does reach his destination. He knows he’s close when he finds the showers, because he then sees the spot in the hallway where Jongin had apologized to him (because during that Yixing had noticed the angle of the bathroom’s light made Jongin look like a silhouette). The EXO-M dorm is not too far from there, taking Yixing only a couple minutes forward, two left, and five backwards because he wasn’t supposed to go left because that’s where a storage unit is. 

After typing in the passcode ( _EXO-M_ isn’t very hard to remember) Yixing is relieved to enter an empty dorm. His surmise was correct: everyone has their own things to do, and these things – fortunately – don’t involve lounging in bed all day, contrary to Yixing’s plans. However, just as he’s changing to do so, something catches his eye:

A pen.

In most cases, Yixing wouldn’t be enticed by a pen. It would usually simmer through his _remember this_ filter and disappear into the void of his mind to be forgotten for the rest of eternity, but because he was just taking off his sweatpants – to replace them with other sweatpants but that is irrelevant – and he took out the piece of paper from his pocket, he remembers what he had planned to do. That therapeutic list thing. 

After he finishes changing because he wouldn’t want to be writing something half-dressed when he could fully-dressed, Yixing sits down at the table with the pen. He uncrumples the paper, smoothing it out before scribbling a little to make sure the thing works. 

_Baekhyun:_

_Jongdae:_

_Jongin:_

_Sehun:_

_Kyungsoo:_

_Chanyeol:_

_Minseok:_

_Joonmyeon:_

He makes sure to write it in barely legible Mandarin (the only perks of being the minority here). He figures if RF_05 cannot speak the language, then it is unlikely the EXO-M members can either, this corroborated by Sehun not even knowing the meaning of his agent name. Then, he starts to label: 

_Baekhyun: unbearable_

_Jongdae: obnoxious_

_Jongin: dumb_

_Sehun: too inse_

_Chanyeol:_

_Kyungsoo:_

_Minseok:_

_Joonmyeon:_

Yixing progresses about halfway through when he realizes he isn’t feeling any better. His pen stills, rising off the half-finished character and dropping onto the table. Though the time between his frustration and when he was able to take it out was a bit longer than expected, Yixing had still anticipated a feeling of relief upon spilling it on paper. Like some kind of weight lifting off of his chest. But he doesn’t. He's probably still 160 pounds. So why? Everyone says it feels better to write something down, but maybe that’s more for false security than realism. 

This was a childish idea, he decides. It seemed good in the moment, the feeling of inadequacy a week ago overbearing, but now that it’s later, he realizes he doesn’t need a piece of paper to consolidate his self-confidence by shitting on everyone else. Besides, Yixing, ultimately, had still reached his objective of finding the flaws; and he felt better from that, not a piece of paper. 

So he’ll just throw it away. 

Not long after leaving the dorm, Yixing locates a trash disposal that looks just like the other one he had used. It’s like a microwave but built into the wall; a glass door lets him throw whatever it is inside, and then a button on the left utterly obliterates it to mere particles. To be honest, it’s a bit overkill – emphasis on _kill_ – for things that don’t include universe-jeopardizing weapons, but it’s still cool to watch.

He crumples the piece of paper before kneeling (because someone decided that it should be built three feet above the ground because of course _toddlers_ would be using it) and placing it inside the compartment. He shuts the hatch securely, giving the piece of paper a final look of pity. It’ll never know what hit it. Well, it wouldn’t anyways. It’s a piece of paper. He really shouldn’t be personifying things because that is step one on the road to going insane.

One glance to the red button on the side and Yixing presses it. For a moment, it’s the calm before the storm. The technology is processing, and the humble blue light slowly dims out. Then, abruptly, a bright orange penetrates his vision as the compartment bursts aflame. Electric bolts criss-crosses the box as the walls slam in on themselves, growing razor-sharp spikes that cut across the center. It’s all too much for a simple piece of paper, as it is essentially gone in the first second, but the sight is still fascinating. Because the process lasts a good half-a-minute, Yixing is sitting when all of the action comes to a sudden halt and the small light flickers back on to reveal absolutely nothing. The disposal looks so peaceful that it’s almost eerie. 

That forthwith has Yixing wondering how many accidents have occurred with this. At first glance, the disposal is definitely a mere microwave. Has someone tried to cook their EZ Mac N’ Cheese in it? Did they cry after there was a pile of ashes left? Has someone used it to their advantage? Yixing shudders at the thought of having his hand held in there as some evil villain like character presses the button. Or even worse, his head shoved in there. Or even _worse_ worse, a thought so appalling that he visibly cringes and scoots away from it, his–

“Xing!” 

Despite the friendly voice, a shiver runs down Yixing’s spine as he looks up to see Baekhyun skipping towards him, a popsicle halfway in his mouth. 

“Hey man.” He greets while brandishing the frozen delicacy, “They just restocked the popsicles. Like an hour ago. I think they’re all gone though. Sorry, I would’ve got you one if you asked!” 

Yixing eyes the treat with discomfort, glancing to the trash obliterator and then having an even harder time banishing that terrifying thought out of his head as he stands up. 

“I... okay, apology accepted.” He says, trying to ignore how Baekhyun’s pushing it in and out of his lips in a manner worryingly similar to oral. Maybe he should initiate conversation so he has to talk and will stop. “Why would they be all gone already?” 

“Jongin,” Baekhyun rolls his eyes at the name, “that fatass thinks just because he can _teleport_ and _get there first_ and then _teleport away with all the popsicles_ that he can eat them all. But jokes on him, because I know where he’s hiding them.”

“Where?”

For some reason, Baekhyun looks almost offended, as if he had asked him for his social security number. “Now why would I tell _you?_ Are you trying to get in on this or something? What’s your offer?” 

“No,” Yixing shakes his head, surprised at the sudden aggression. “I was just curious.”

 _“Kaaay...”_ Baekhyun draws out the word, leaving the topic open for another moment because for some reason he thinks Yixing is going to admit something. When he doesn’t, Baekhyun looks to the trash disposal. And then to Yixing. And then to the trash disposal.

And then to Yixing. “Why were you sitting in front of the trash? Like, I know you’re weird and stuff, but this is a whole new thing. Are you... perhaps... a _dumpster diver?”_ He whispers the last part, but a big _slurp_ breaks the deafening silence before, “Cause buddy, do I got some _bad_ news for you.” 

“No.” This time, Yixing shakes his head _and_ sighs. Maybe next time he’ll add a facepalm. “I was just watching the thing I threw away. And I’d argue that if someone thought that thing was normal and didn’t stay to watch what it does then _they_ would be weird.”

Another uncomfortable smack of Baekhyun’s lips. “What were you throwing away?”

“A piece of paper.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t need it.” Yixing uses the loophole of telling the truth but not the _whole_ truth.

“Wow, you’re having an exciting day.” Baekhyun comments. “Anyways, I’m heading to the techno room to annoy the shit out of Kyungsoo, wanna come?”

Despite it being a request, it sounded nothing like a question. There wasn’t even the slightest of a raised intonation on _come._

“Aren’t all the rooms _techno_ rooms because they all have technology?” Yixing asks instead. 

Baekhyun purses his lips, “Okay, smartass. If you want to get all specific, it’s ROOM MISC_4873. Let’s go.”

“But I never said I wanted–“

Suddenly, a beep from his lower right sounds. The world – universe – freezes.

And then unfreezes when Yixing’s not shocked, and Baekhyun’s laughing because he had just flinched so hard he had smacked his hand off of the metal wall. Why is he laughing so hard? It wasn’t _that_ funny. 

“It’s just a beep, you don’t have to be scared.” Baekhyun clearly doesn’t realize the full extent to Yixing’s torture. “Well, actually, it’s a beep for your first mission. So on second thought, you should be terrified.” 

“My first what?” Yixing looks to his bracelet. It is flashing a red color that’s a bit darker than the one that shows when he lies. Then, across the middle words appear in the schedule format:

 _MISSION: AGENT LAY TO_ **_ROOM_1904_ ** _IMMEDIATELY_

Oh, God. 

Mission. Immediately. Agent Lay?! He can’t do this. He’s not Agent Lay. He’s _Yixing._ Yixing who was _immediately_ going to take a big fat nap!

When he hears another beep, he notices that Baekhyun’s bracelet is flashing as well. Instead of a petrified look styled with wide eyes and a slightly agape jaw (like Yixing), the other is smiling slightly. As if he’s _excited._

“Your first mission!” All too of a sudden Baekhyun’s arm is around his shoulders in a bro-hold as he, to Yixing’s shock (but not surprise), smacks a large kiss on his head. 

“You’re going to do great, hun.” 

Instead of replying, Yixing surrenders and lets himself be led to wherever that room is. His body is idle, but his mind is racing. His first mission? Already? Was he not supposed to get any kind of training? Or were those mere two sessions it? Had he missed out on crucial instruction from being sick? Yet he is _still_ being sent? All he knows about missions is that they involve another planet and usually gathering or destroying something and that they require athleticism and powers and all of those things he doesn't have and can’t do. Well– he can think quickly, he’ll give himself that. But what is thinking quickly when he is about to die? Knowing a split-second sooner that all hope is lost?

Typically, Yixing doesn’t fear things. Everything – on Earth – has such simplicity and rationality deep down that there is no reason to be afraid. Once he finds out how it works, he’ll stop being scared of it because he’ll understand and work around it. Such as people. So, when asked that _what’s your worst fear_ question, he fabricates something: like spiders, or death, because he doesn’t want to say _nothing_ because A) they’ll say he’s lying and B) he’s absolutely sure that he’s afraid of _something,_ even if it is an irrational fear and even if he knows how it works. Fears are inevitable and it would just be a matter of time for it to come.

And now it’s time. 

The worst action of Randomness ever since Cat had puked _right_ when she was cuddled up on his chest, because Yixing is absolutely not ready to face something scary what-so-ever. He has been torn from his world, given almost no explanation for how things work, and is now expected to fight monsters with his bare hands. It’s like being thrown in the boss battle days after buying the video game, except that being thrown in the boss battle days after buying the video game doesn’t happen except it does with Yixing and this situation and god, will he _die?!_

Death is interesting, yes, but he doesn’t want to die right now! Not right now when he is clinging onto the most delicate tether of hope that he’ll go back to Earth and be able to do all those adult things– not when he was _finally_ about to be free and happy! That would be such a waste.

“Are you okay, bro?” Baekhyun asks, rousing Yixing from his petrified stupor. “You’re looking a little pale.”

“... Am I going to die?” He’s surprised at how meek his voice comes out. Gosh, he really must be scared. The tight feeling in his chest confirms that, every nerve in his body telling him to break from Baekhyun’s hold and sprint back to the EXO-M dorms and hide under his blankets for the rest of time.

A not even slightly sympathetic laugh escapes the other. 

“No, of course not. That’s ridiculous. You… you don’t _die_ on missions.” Another guffaw.

“Okay.” Yixing nods, he’s not going to die. Says Baekhyun.

Says Baekhyun. Who had also said Portuguese was spoken by the Mexicans. Who had also said this whole thing would be fun _._ Who had also said he needed help outside with something at two in the morning in his motel room but kidnapped him instead...

Fuck, he’s going to die!

Unfortunately, there is not enough time to have a panic attack, because the pair make it to **ROOM_1904** just as Yixing gets the overwhelmingly strong impulse to book it. As the metal doors open, he quickly recognizes this is the room where he had met everyone for the second time. The one where he didn’t pretend to faint. There is the same silver table with different holographic tabs sprouting up from a couple stations. The spacious room looks larger than he remembers because this time there are only five people. Chanyeol, who’s talking to Kyungsoo, Jongin, who’s sitting content, and then Baekhyun and himself.

“Sup _partay people!”_ Baekhyun shouts, finally letting go of Yixing’s shoulder with a departing pat on the butt. “Who’s ready to get this mission on! With the noob, too!” 

Chanyeol hoots and Jongin laughs whilst Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, checking his bracelet.

“You’re late.”

 _“Sorry,”_ Baekhyun’s tone says anything but an apology, “Yixing had me all held up. He was watching the _trash can.”_ He giggles as he maneuvers open the door of the room’s garbage disposal with his foot, tossing the popsicle stick in and shutting it before kicking the button. Everyone ignores the fiery hell that occurs in the small box.

Instead, they laugh, pitifully, as if frowning upon him. Joke’s on them, because, as stated, _they’re_ the weird ones if they think that is normal. Yixing merely flattens his lips in an unimpressed response before joining the table at the other side of Jongin. Is this all that are going on the mission? 

His question is answered when every screen above the table disappears, and from the corner comes RF_05, which Yixing hadn’t even noticed was there. He feels relieved, because if it is only them, then that means the mission is probably not super difficult and therefore not very demanding and therefore he might not die. The robot hovers at the other side of them as a screen as wide as the table projects from its central area, words sliding onto it. 

**_MISSION ID:_ ** _17394841_

 **_AGENTS REQUIRED:_ ** _(K)HYUNEE – LIGHT, (K)DOHBI – FIRE, (K)D.O – FORCE, (K)KAI – TELEPORTATION, (M)LAY – HEALING_

As Yixing’s wondering why Chanyeol is called _DOHBI_ and Jongin _KAI,_ RF starts speaking. More words appear simultaneously like subtitles. 

“Welcome, agents. Mission 17394841 is on planet #1485. Your task is to retrieve twelve stolen _bonjil_ without damaging or harming them. _Bonjil_ are powerful orbs supporting your abilities situated at Exoplanet and were picked up by infiltrating magnetic pulls during the most recent supply stop and coinciding space object activities. Be aware of planet #1485’s rocky terrain and cold temperatures. Do not touch anything that is crystalized and refrain from breathing any tangible gasses. There is also a guardian to the _bonjil_ that will be an obstacle.”

After _“obstacle”,_ the tab changes to a CGI picture of said guardian. To Yixing’s surprise, it’s a _cat._

A literal cat.

The white animal has a paw raised upon a red orb– or _bonjil,_ in the photo, as if it is playing with a toy. It has a red collar with the letter ‘L’ on a tablet. He hears an adoring coo from Chanyeol. 

“That’s the biggest pussy I’ve ever seen.” Baekhyun’s smirk threatens to burst out into laughter at his own joke.

“It’s not funny if you’re gay.” Kyungsoo comments, monotone voice hinting at vexation.

“I’m bi, baby. Get your facts straight.” 

Suddenly, the robot interrupts. “Now is not the time to discuss Agent Hyunee’s sexuality. Pay attention.” 

“I like demanding in a woman.” Baekhyun’s voice goes all suave like when he’s making a sexual innuendo. God, this guy is terrible. 

When he yelps, Yixing finally surrenders _focus on the screen and not on the idiocy_ and looks to Baekhyun, who’s rubbing his wrist where his bracelet must’ve shocked him. So RF _is_ controlling the bracelets. Maybe Yixing should talk to it about the severity, then. 

_“Continuing,”_ The way RF says it is emphasized, like how a person would say it. It’s unsettling. The image of the cat shrinks and moves to the corner as bullets slide in. 

_OBSTACLE: SPACE CREATURE_ (FÉLICETTE)

_FOUND STRENGTHS_

\- _Abnormal strength (8.53EXI)_

\- _Claws and teeth can kill if contact made_

\- _Powerful hisses (50+MPH GUSTS)_

_FOUND WEAKNESSES_

\- _Light sensitivity_

\- _Monotenacity_

“This space creature has dimensions of an estimated thirty cross forty-five cross fifteen feet and, along with these defined attributes, contains the general characteristics of an Earthling housecat.” Yixing frowns at the word _Earthling,_ because out of all the space-junk he’s retained through comics and movies he never thought _Earthling_ would actually be a word. “It was created from environment-provoked mutation. Originally, this was French cat Félicette, launched into space upon the Véronique AG1 rocket on October 18th, 1963. The ship malfunctioned and was lost around Milky Way's Saturn, where Félicette landed on traveling planet #1485 and was altered by the environment. You, however, will not be affected because you will not be staying for long enough.” 

“Pause, RF.” The robot emits a granting sound after Jongin interrupts. “Mono-tenacity. That means...”

“It can only focus on one thing.” Kyungsoo answers after a brief period of silence because no one else knew the definition. _Ah_ , Yixing’s mind goes. That makes sense. It’s like how Cat can get so immersed in a swinging object, except that this space cat will _only_ do that.

Chanyeol gasps in _I-just-got-an-idea_. “You use your teleportation to distract it, Jongin. While Baek and Soo gather the orbs.” 

“I can also distract it.” Baekhyun says, pointing his fingers upwards where two streams of light emit. “I’ve always wanted to use these babes like a cat-lazer! Didn’t work with Minseokie.” This time, he laughs at his own joke.

Actually, maybe it’s not a joke. Probably not. 

“We should do significant damage to it before gathering them.” Kyungsoo inputs, “Jongin can distract while Baekhyun and I do enough damage to render it weak enough to not protect the orbs. Then, Baekhyun,” He nods to him, “you can take the job of distracting with light patterns while Jongin can teleport the orbs back to the ship.” 

“That’s a lot of teleportation in such a short time...” Jongin pouts, “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it all without getting too tired.”

Why would RF plan it with only these members if Jongin would get tired, then? It is advanced intelligence for a reason, Yixing thinks, but doesn’t say anything. He has no idea what he’s doing therefore is in no position to be contributing other than doing what he’s told. Even if it makes him feel useless, that's the most useful thing he can do. 

“Let’s have a plan B, then.” Chanyeol suggests. 

“Yes, any suggestions?” Kyungsoo asks, but by the way he’s typing away at his station on a tab that’s too far away to read with clarity he probably already has one.

It’s surprising how relatively serious everyone is. It’s like _The Prophecy:_ something in this place that calls for a work-focused vagary amongst everyone no matter their differences. It’s as if the qualities of this whole thing will never stop downing upon him in some sort of revelation. There’s always a wowing step further.

Baekhyun speaks up. “How about plan B is that if Jongin gets tired, we can establish a base to bring all the orbs to to keep safe until ready for the ship?” 

_But that’s just more work._

“But that’s just more work.” Kyungsoo says, making Yixing stare because that is _just_ what he was thinking. “I can help with distracting when the cat has had some damage to it to give Jongin a break before he brings them to the ship. I’ll throw rocks, and stuff. Maybe it’ll even be like a real cat and go chase them.” 

“Oh my gosh,” Chanyeol breaks into a smile, making Kyungsoo for some reason smile too. “I want to see that. It’d be adorable.” 

“Yeah!” Baekhyun agrees rather quickly, then clearing his throat. The first time Yixing has noticed _any_ kind of awkwardness from the guy. “I mean, yes, that’d be cute... RF, continue!”

The same beep as earlier sounds. RF continues so abruptly Yixing flinches. 

“The area the obstacle and targets are in is elevated land, meaning higher air pressure and a harder time breathing.” A topographic map shows up, the point of view circling around the generated area. “Other than this, aforementioned cold temperatures, detrimental gasses, and crystals are the only environmental hindrances. Dress accordingly for agents who are going.”

The screen then switches to profiles of the five of them. Their pictures – Yixing’s consists of a mugshot he never knew he had – slide into two groups. The left includes Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, and Jongin while he and Chanyeol are on the right. Under the former group is _FIELD AGENT_ and under him and Chanyeol is _MISSION CONTROL._

“The agents on the field will be Hyunee, D.O, and Kai. DohBi and Lay are mission control. The estimated time for completion is no more than twenty-four hours. You may only need six, depending on where you land.”

Yixing has never truly felt the word _relief_ until now. 

Mission control. That means on the ship. That means getting to stay in these sweatpants and not going to that terrifying place to battle a giant cat. He recalls when Baekhyun had kidnapped him, how he was talking into a communication unit. To Jongdae. He’s being the Jongdae, this time.

“You are dismissed to prepare. You launch off POD_6 in exactly fifteen minutes. Do not be late.” RF_05 concludes as the screen shuts off, the robot remaining idle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! If you felt like you recognized some of the parts of the mission described but can't quite put your finger on it, go watch the power mv :D (0:22). And if you are wondering félicette is actually a real cat, yeah thats right i do my research (googled: "space cat")
> 
> Tysm for reading <3<3<3<3


	13. The Pod and Planet #1485

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the help of Chanyeol and the not-help of Baekhyun, Yixing embarks on his first space-adventure thing. As mission control, there's a lot to be covered.

**QUIET VOICES** start as Yixing stands, heading in Kyungsoo’s direction because he is the most reliable here except that he is stopped when Baekhyun abruptly grabs his arm, yanking him out of the room and in the direction opposite of everyone else.

“Kay, so we’re going to change.” Yixing gives up struggling and lets himself be pulled, “Well, not you. But you’re coming with me anyways because I want to fill you in so you’re ready.”

“...What?” Baekhyun raises a brow. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Noth–“ Yixing catches himself on the first syllable. “... Because you are typically not nice to me.” 

_“Wha?_ When?” 

No matter how hard Yixing stares, Baekhyun’s expression remains innocent. He shakes his head and sighs, deciding that it’s not worth it to argue. 

“Never mind. What do I need to know?” 

“Well, first of all, don’t yell at Jongin. He’s very sensitive. Just be patient.” Yixing should’ve known that Baekhyun wouldn’t be discussing anything _useful._ “And same with Chanyeol, be nice. He has such a big heart... With Kyungsoo, however, say whatever you want. Also, Kyungsoo’s right in most cases, so listen to him.” 

“Oh, and can you keep a secret?” 

Yixing’s brows furrow as he looks to Baekhyun. Again, his face is fully serious, not alluding to any joke. The way he had said it: with a mysterious intonation to the request... it’s all too familiar of the people back at his high school. _Can you keep a secret_ was basically saying _I’m going to tell you something sensitive so don’t tell anyone._

And here Yixing was thinking he was an outsider. Was Junmyeon not exaggerating about that whole everyone’s-instantly-best-friends thing?

“Yeah.” He _can_ , but considering his dislike for Baekhyun, he’s not sure he _will._

Baekhyun glances behind them – to where no one is in pursuit – before saying in a hushed voice. “I kind of have my eyes on Chanyeol. So don’t... embarrass me in front of him or anything.”

Now this Baekhyun is a stranger. This Baekhyun doesn’t have the confidence of a lion, but is rather normal. Nervous, even. Just like any teenage boy with a crush. Yixing kind of wants to tease him for it, but now is not the time. Regardless, both of these vagaries have happened within a span of time in which Chanyeol had been present or the topic. Maybe he should hang around Chanyeol more. 

“Why?” Yixing asks.

“‘Why’ what?” Baekhyun looks confused for some reason, which in turn makes Yixing confused because the question was pretty straightforward.

“Why do you like him?”

The shorter scoffs, “Why _wouldn’t_ you like him?” 

“Well, for starters, I barely know him. Also, he–“

“Rhetorical question, dummy.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes and Yixing almost slaps him. Almost. “He’s just... perfect. So dreamy and cute and–“

“Okay, I understand.” Yixing interrupts, in turn getting a rough slap on the arm. The fucking audacity! 

This time, he slaps back.

“Ow, dude, the face!”

Yixing mimics him, _“Ow, dude, the arm!”_

Baekhyun glares.

Yixing gives a saccharine smile. “Anyways, as I was saying, are you guys dating?”

Baekhyun gets completely distracted from the fight. “What? No... Not yet. Okay, so I have a plan. Because, T-B-H...” Yixing takes a moment to contemplate how this guy actually said the letters _T, B,_ and _H_ out loud. “I think he’s into me too, yaknow? Like it’s been this kind of back and forth shit for a month, so I’m planning on doing something after the dinner. Either–“

“What’s the dinner?” Yixing asks. Is it important? Does it require his attendance? Should it be capitalized like _The Dinner_? 

“Oh, yeah.” Baekhyun chuckles. “Keep forgetting you’re new. So basically, after every mission the whole team gets together for dinner. Like, actual authentic food instead of the ship’s stuff and the rare meal Kyungsoo will make. It’s one of the few traditions we have here.” 

“Do I have to go?” 

Baekhyun raises a brow, “Yah, what part of _one of the few traditions we have here_ did you not understand?” 

“The part where I have to go.” 

“You have to go.” He confirms to Yixing’s dismay. “But anyways, after the upcoming one I plan to either one, get flowers and kindly ask him if he would like to date me, or two, seduce him into really hot sex so he’ll never get me out of his mind and eventually fall in love, if he hasn’t already.”

Yixing narrows his eyes at the second one, because there’s something not quite right about it. Weird, though, because he hears about that kind of thing all the time. The second one also fits Baekhyun far better than the first, so it depends on what Chanyeol would react better to. Wait, why is he seriously thinking about this?

“Oh, we’re here. The others are probably in there, so I’ll talk to you soon on the comm unit.”

Yixing stops at the door, hearing voices from the inside to confirm. “Okay.” He says. Baekhyun gives an affirmative nod and heads in, but then Yixing realizes he doesn’t know where he’s supposed to go and last-second grabs his shoulder.

“Yes, darling?” Baekhyun spins around elegantly.

“Where do I go?”

“Oh, right,” He snorts, “silly me. It’s actually not that far. Keep going that way and eventually you’ll reach this hallway full of a bunch of close together doors. They’re for the space pods. I forgot which one we’re in so just find Chanyeol.” 

Yixing looks to where he’s pointing. “Okay, bye.” 

_“You’re welcome!”_ Baekhyun shouts after him, but it’s ignored. 

Once he reaches _that way and eventually you’ll reach this hallway full of a bunch of close together doors,_ Yixing stops, staring down the long corridor. There’s something about it that he recognizes, which is strange because he thought he had no sense of navigation around this place. Doors are on both sides, spaced out every ten feet or so. The doors aren’t the normal hexagonal shape, but rather rectangular, like the one to the Ability Training gymnasium. Each has a screen on the top, numbers starting from 0 to something far away he can’t read, but maybe fifty if he were to estimate. To his left is a large sign reading _PODS,_ and that’s when he puts two and two together. 

This was where he was captured: one of these ‘pods’. That vape pod Baekhyun was talking about all that time ago wasn’t what he thought it was. Yixing reasons that the pods are most likely smaller units for missions so the large ship itself is not put at risk. That makes sense, but what doesn’t make sense is how the doors had disappeared when he had last been here. _That_ he specifically remembers, despite his horrified #just-kidnapped three AM daze.

“Hey, Yixing?” The deep voice startles Yixing. He whips around to see Chanyeol, eyes bright and smile apologetic. He supposes he gets why Baekhyun likes him. He’s very cute, despite his giant height.

“Hi.” Yixing says, looking back down the hallway. “Which one are we in?”

“Six.” He answers, thankfully going ahead so Yixing doesn’t have to dumbly look around for _six_. 

“I’ll show you how everything works.” Chanyeol stops at the door, bending down to an eyeball scanner. A red light emits (doesn’t that stuff make people blind?) and swipes across his eyes, making him blink harshly as a ding sounds and the door slides open. Yixing follows closely behind as to not have to do that. 

“Please do...” As the room comes into full view, the final word draws out into a: “... Wow.”

And _wow_ is right. 

Up until now, Yixing has found every room comparable to something he has seen on a sci-fi show. The movies are pretty accurate to the real thing with monochrome metals and fancy buttons and holographic screens. But this... Yixing couldn’t fathom the technology here getting even _more_ ornate.

It’s as if the architect of the the ship decided to toss the whole light-colored theme they had going on; everything’s in dark. The floor, walls, and ceiling are all a glossy black, making a night-time illusion. Bright white lights follow intricate patterns throughout the technology, dimly lighting the compact space. And god, the _buttons._ Yixing doesn’t think there is a single surface that’s not coated in buttons, lights, screens, knobs... it’s all so much that it’s overwhelming. Although there is a long station with glowing chairs, where he assumes he’s going to be sitting, there are controls and fidgets and whatnot _everywhere;_ even on the ceiling, in places impossible to reach. He doesn’t know how he’s going to focus. Especially when there’s _actually_ something to distract him.

His jaw lets loose from the sight. It’s amazing. The controls look like stars and planets that make a stark contrast against the dark matter of the surfaces under, resulting in the most brilliant galaxy he has ever– 

Oh. Never mind. There are lights.

Yixing should’ve known there would be more than just the wall patterns. The room goes bright with the same fluorescent glow he’s grown to loathe. He looks up. He must’ve overlooked the four gigantic mushroom-top lights. 

“I know, it’s pretty cool.” Chanyeol giggles, and Yixing wonders what is so funny until he realizes he probably has a dumb expression on his face.

“It’s better without the lights.” He says, clearing to a neutral countenance and joining Chanyeol who is standing at a station, fiddling with a pair of headphones.

“Yeah, same, but we’re not allowed to have them off... oh! I should show you how everything works.” Chanyeol drops the headphones rather harshly back onto the table as he pulls back one of the hovering chairs, gesturing for Yixing to sit.

After squinting at the thing and putting a foot on it to apply pressure to make sure he’s not too heavy for sci-fi movies, he does. Right in front of him is a large screen. This is probably where a bunch of graphs and analytics and cameras he doesn’t understand a single thing about will be. There’s a classic keyboard (classic because of the QWERTY structure, not the fact that it’s made out of light yet it’s still a solid and functions) at his fingertips, but other than that he doesn’t know what any of the controls to the left or right or above or under do. There is one of those huge red buttons though.

“What does that do?” Yixing points to it, surmising it is some kind of emergency tool considering its size and vibrant color. Maybe it ejects cargo, or maybe it blows up the whole Pod. Maybe he should try it. 

“That’s nothing really. Just turns on this little thing.” Chanyeol presses it and a small fan up in the corner of his station starts blowing. 

Yixing nods, pressing his lips together in a thin line as he pushes fan-swept hair out of his face, but then regrets that because he doesn’t exactly have gel to force it back so it ends up sticking out somewhere halfway. 

“Okay, how about everything else?”

Chanyeol reaches a long arm to grab his chair and drag it over. He sits and then continues to point and explain and point and explain and point and explain and point and explain and point and explain.

“These are for looking at data, you can change what you want to see by pressing the different colors. That one lets you see the environmental stats, that one lets you see the vitals of your partner, that one opens a topographic map, and that one is for the mission details and updates made by RF.”

There are a couple he skips and Yixing wants to ask but figures he should pay attention first.

“This is for the Pod’s built-in missiles, the ones under all for directional and aerodynamic stuff. This one is for turning off the fan. This one is volume and brightness and that stuff you’re probably familiar with. This one is for volume control of your partner. This one is for emails, and this–“ 

At _emails,_ Yixing loses him. He makes a weak attempt to refocus, but it’s refuted by Chanyeol’s voice repeating, _emails, emails, emails, E-M-A-I-L-S._ And then he gets several ideas. If _emails_ is what he thinks it is, electronic messages that are sent from one location to another typically including addresses on Earth, then he’ll try emailing back home. Namjoon, because he doesn’t check his messages only once every three months unlike _someone_. Yixing won’t bother trying to explain how he’s on a spaceship or anything because that will just exacerbate any kind of investigation going on. He’ll instead say (after making a convincing enough argument that this indeed _is_ him messaging) that he is safe and content will come back home soon and that searching for him is impossible and to stop trying. It’d all be a bit difficult to communicate, but Yixing really doesn’t want his best friend wasting all his time worrying and doing things that ultimately make no impact.

“And then this one is for the lasers, but you have to be very careful to not aim wrong and hit one of them out on the field... Okay, so you got that?”

Yixing blinks back into reality, staring at Chanyeol’s finger that’s pointing to some joystick. It’s the same blue as his hair.

“Yep.” He answers tentatively, not getting shocked because fortunately Chanyeol didn’t specify what exactly he had gotten. (Maybe 15% of his whole speel). 

“Okay!” He grins, and Yixing notices his teeth are really straight and white and remembers Junmyeon having that same quality and wonders if his own teeth will be like that soon enough with the toothpaste here. “Good luck, Yixing! Just tap me if you need help with anything.”

“Thanks.” Yixing says, watching as the other wheels back to his own seat and puts on his headset. He mimics the action, figuring he’s probably obligated to talk to Baekhyun.

And god damnit, he _really_ should have checked the volume. 

As soon as he presses the on button for reception, a way-too-loud voice practically burts his eardrums. “YAH?! CAN YOU EVEN HEAR ME!? NO, JONGIN, NOT YOU, I’M TRYING TO REACH YIXING! OH MY GOSH, HEY, YOU’RE HERE! I’M NOT YELLING KYUNGSOO I’M TRYING TO GET HIM TO HEAR ME!” 

Yixing flinches so emphatically that his knee smacks the table, eliciting a pained cry. He flails around, locating the volume button and turning it mute (who put it at maximum volume?! Who?!). He takes a few moments to recover – and give the concerned Chanyeol a weak thumbs up – before turning it back up, adjusting the small microphone at his lips. 

“–Hello? Are you there? Jesus, did y’all crash or something? What was that noise? Oh, shit, is there another gremlin on board? Did you kill–“ 

“Hi.” Yixing’s breathless for some reason. And he wasn’t even the one talking! “Stop talking. I am here. We are good.” 

“What was that sound?”

“Me crying out in pain because you were screaming and it scared me and I hit my leg on the table and it really hurt.” 

The mic is muffled.

Yixing frowns, “I can still hear you.” 

Suddenly, the laugh becomes much clearer. “Ahaha, okay, sorry, that’s funny.”

“Who used this headset last? Are they hard of hearing?”

“Uh, I don’t know what station you’re at, stupid.”

“I don’t know either.” Yixing says after scanning the area for any kind of label. 

“... Do you even _know_ what you’re doing?”

“No.” Yixing can practically hear the eye-roll, because he definitely can the sigh, and gets a little annoyed. “You can’t expect me to be good at this when I haven’t been given any resources whatsoever. Were you not just as useless when you were in my place?” 

“Well, not to be rude.” Baekhyun prefaces for something probably rude, “But you’ve kind of been useless for too long. Like, everyone gets their powers at least started in like a week. And they’ve taken it upon themselves to find out how everything works. And they know where they’re going and don’t need to ask for directions.”

A kind of fire kindles in his chest, but Yixing shoves any insults down his throat because that’s not going to help. “I’ve been sick, if you didn’t realize.”

Just after a high-toned hum of _“Excuses.”_ Yixing’s about to say something probably rude, but is interrupted by the sudden clashing of metal. He turns the volume down. His head whips towards the door, which disappears in front of his very eyes, and then to Chanyeol, who clicks a button several times before explaining.

“We’re taking off, so the door goes away.” 

Yeah, he got that, but–

“How?” Yixing keeps staring at the wall, willing himself to see at least the slightest of a sign that it’s mechanical. Yet it’s as smooth as the rest of the room. In fact, there are even buttons there.

To his disappointment, Chanyeol shrugs, clicking that same button a bunch of times again before, “Soo? Can you hear me? I’m going to connect Jongin to this channel as well and create the community one. I’m sending the code, ask him for it.”

All of the sudden, something goes bright, and Yixing looks forward to see the black screen has just turned on. A quick _WELCOME, AGENT_ slides across the screen before going into a console format he doesn’t really understand. He presses one of the buttons Chanyeol had told him about, and then comes up a slightly-less complicated screen displaying Baekhyun’s vitals. 

Oh, yeah. Baekhyun.

Yixing wearily turns the volume back up to be met mid-rant. “–and are you ignoring me or something? Yixing?!” 

“I’m here.” He says, clearing his throat. “I turned the volume down.”

“Don’t do that.” Baekhyun reprimands. “What if I had died?”

“But you didn’t.” Unless this screen is telling him otherwise, Baekhyun is unfortunately alive and well.

“Yeah, but what if?”

“Then I would get some peace and quiet until I would be most likely reprimanded back at the ship and then have to act sad for your death and then get a new mission partner and wow, all is well. Life is good.”

“... I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that. And seriously, don’t mute me.”

“Okay.” Yixing says as he turns down his volume to the lowest register, then clicking onto that email button he had so grievously worked to keep in his attention span. 

He tries to focus on what Baekhyun’s saying along with looking through the feature. It looks like any old-fashion computer’s email, so old that Yixing has the slight worry that it may not work. He scrolls through the inbox and sent messages, hoping for someone to have emailed to a host he’s familiar with. Like gmail. 

“–and also you better talk to me because I don’t want to have to talk to Kyungsoo through the other channel and also I think it’s a relatively long ride. Like a whole twenty minutes.” 

“Oh, why’s that?” Yixing asks absentmindedly, like when his mother talks to him while he is clearly busy on his phone. The trick is to ask questions, because questions indicate interest as they elicit more information, distracting the talker from the lack of attention in the first place and having them focus instead on finding the answer.

The inbox includes things like:

**_From: D.O._ **

_slide me some but DO NOT tell Baekhyun because that pig will eat it all and then have the audacity to call ME fat_

**_From: CHEN_ **

_fjhsudfhusdfushfuisdhfuhfIHufhudshfuhsfihuioreghuniuv HI IT IS THE BEST JONG CAN YOU PLEASE STOP IGNORING ME I AM JUSt tRYING TO DO MY JOB >:((((((( _

**_From: XUANXU_ **

_no u_

**_From: XIUMIN_ **

_Stop fucking around with the email and focus >:((( _

**_From: SUHO_ **

_Hey, what do you csll a deer with no eyes?_

By the time he gives up (“if u don’t gimme succ I will be like TT”), Baekhyun is talking about Kyungsoo vehemently. Something about Chanyeol also liking Kyungsoo and being his nemesis for Chanyeol’s love and also a bucking fitch or whatever he said. Yixing scrolls through the outbox, giving the ever so often “Really?”.

**_To: XIUMIN_ **

_Bby please tell him u have no idea what he’s talking there are no ch**tos on the pod_

_I will literally suck your dick_

_okI might anyway but SAY YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HES TALKING ABOUT_

**_Re: give me ur cheet*s or ELSE_ **

**_To: HYUNEE_ **

_no go away lozer_

And then Yixing finds his personal favourite, right at the top of the trash, sent a couple weeks ago:

**_Re: mission steal noob omg im so EXCITE!!!!!!!!!!_ **

**_To: SUHO_ **

_noah fence but y is this guy picked he literally lost to BAEKHYUN and he had a whole ass 3 inches on him AND a screwdriver_ : _|_

Interesting, but still not what he’s looking for. As Yixing scrolls down, glazing over for foreign names or addresses, he tunes back into what Baekhyun’s saying. 

“–and I was like _no I didn’t_ but apparently that wasn’t enough because he had to go ask Chanyeol himself and I was like, _honey,_ that’s so embarrassing...”

“Oh, really? Wow.” Yixing comments as he digs through the trash, going through every page. Most of it consists of junk conversations, whether they involve sneaking snacks on missions or complications or just drama between the guys in general. Apparently, it never occurred to anyone to empty the trash. Except for maybe Kyungsoo, or maybe Kyungsoo just has little drama. 

And then, on the very last page (page 65, because Yixing decided to not give up until he finds something) on the very last email, he unveils a sliver of hope.

**Re:** **galaxee galaxeeᵍᵃˡᵃˣᵉᵉ**

**From: [ERROR: USER NOT FOUND]**

TELL YIFAN TO FUCKING SOTP OR IM GOING TO JUMP INTO THE SUN 

_Yifan?_ That’s definitely not anyone here, nor any agent name. And how come the sending address is an error?

“Hey.” Yixing interrupts the middle of Baekhyun’s rant about god-knows-what. “Who’s _Yifan?”_

There’s a pause before, “I don’t know. Must be a typo or something. The hell are you looking at?”

That’s definitely the worst typo Yixing has seen, and it seems rather unlikely as well considering there is only one other typo. And what could ‘Yifan’ possibly be a misconstrue of? The closest thing he can think of is his own name, and Yixing and Yifan really only have the _Yi_ in common, and he’s pretty sure no one here knew about him two years ago... Unless they did. Unless this has been a scheme ever since Yixing was born and he had no idea until he was nineteen. Not even a junk-text when he got his first phone at twelve saying _Hey, your life is going to be ruined. Prepare accordingly! XOXO_

“Okay.” He says. “I’m looking through the emails. This one with that typo doesn’t say who it’s from. It says ‘Error: User Not Found.’” 

“Ah... That’s because something malfunctioned in the system a little while ago, so everyone’s profiles had to be reset. You shouldn’t be on the emails though, we’re on a mission.” 

“It doesn’t seem like being on a mission stopped anyone else from being on the emails.” Baekhyun snorts as Yixing goes back to the main page, clicking _create._ It’s still worth a shot, despite his lack of desired finds. 

“And here I was thinking you were a rule follower.”

Yixing multitasks typing and making authentic conversation, but soon stops typing because he begins to subtitle what he’s saying and there’s already a whole story for that. “I follow rules for the most part, because they’re usually right. That’s why they are rules. But sometimes they’re wrong, which is reasonable because rules are made by humans and human error is inevitable. So when a rule is wrong I just don’t follow it.”

“Oh, I never thought about it that way...” Baekhyun’s voice turns a kind of genuine tone that is unsettling. Quick, sexual innuendo! 

“...Cool, actually.”

To this, Yixing just doesn’t say anything because sarcasm isn’t allowed anymore thanks to the bracelet. Besides, he’s writing his email.

**_To: knmrm19032@naver.co_ **

_Hello this is Xing I hope you receive this, if you do I guess I cannot exactly prove to you that it is me so my best is that my phone is in Byulbit Hospitality somewhere in downtown Seoul near my house maybe I think it is under the pillow passcode is zqoaf93aa and I think my last picture is a screenshot of my lockscreen I accidentally took but anyways I am okay I promise I am not being held at gunpoint forced to do this or anything I am content I am well and I will be back home soon PLEASE DO NOT GO LOOKING FOR ME YOU WILL NOT FIND ME PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WHEN YOU CAN BE DOING SOMETHING BETTER LIKE GETTING A JOB SO YOU EAT WELL AND DONT DIE okay if you email back I do not know if I will get it bc bad area but do not worry about me I will be back I promise okay bye heartheart <#34 _

He gives a quick once-over before pressing send, then going to the _sent_ folder and deleting it off of the device because he, unlike the others, doesn’t want his messages to be accessible to everybody. Yixing can’t decide whether it was helpful or harmful. On one hand, he has just alleviated his antsy conscience by knowing that Namjoon may see his message and know he’s okay, but on the other hand it’s the _may_ that just makes his conscience even more antsy because he has no idea whether his best friend will get it or not.

Reality considering, probably not. But reality has turned askew, so he seriously doesn’t know... that’s scary. 

When Chanyeol laughs loudly, Yixing glances over, wondering what is so funny for a brief moment before going back to the computer. He clicks the button that changes the screen, his eyes adjusting to the darker lighting of Baekhyun’s vitals. He’s alive and well. Still.

“Is that him laughing?” Baekhyun asks. “God, he’s so cute.”

“What?” 

“You know~” Baekhyun pokes like a thirteen year old girl and Yixing can imagine him mouthing the name. 

“Oh, _Chanyeol?”_ Yixing makes sure to say with enough volume that the guy looks. The other side of the unit is silent when he just as loudly answers his inquisitive glance.

“It’s just Baekhyun talking about you. He thinks you’re cute, by the way!” Yixing relishes in the several sharp _SHHH’s_ through the headset. He looks back at the vitals, a slight smile grazing his lips as he sees the boy’s heart rate rise. 

On Baekhyun’s side, a door shuts before some fuzzy microphone adjusting sounds and a whisper-shout. _“Dude, shut the fuck up! What do you_ not _get about the don’t embarrass me in front of him?!”_

“I get it, one hundred percent.” Yixing decides to not go any further than that because, “What room did you just go in to?”

_“The closet because you’re so fucking obnoxious.”_

For the first time in god-knows-how long, Yixing lets out a genuine laugh. 

“Fuck you.”

“I would think you would want to fuck Chanyeol.” This time he turns down the volume a couple notches to evade the tirade. To be honest, he has not an inkling why Baekhyun had decided telling him this was a good idea. Not his problem, though.

All of a sudden, a loud female robot voice silences everything.

“Prepare to land on planet #1485.” RF says. Yixing removes his headphones to pay attention, but then he realizes the voice is from _inside_ his headphones so he puts them back on. 

“–has given you field agents the map accessible by your wristband. Direct all other questions and concerns to mission control and return within twenty-four hours with the orbs. Store them securely in the posterior unit in the specialized cases provided. Mission control, always keep a tab of the map on...” Yixing is trying to remember what to press when, “The square orange button labeled _V,_ Agent Lay.” 

Ah, there’s that topographic map. This time, it shows the gridded terrain from spaceships-eye view, landforms growing vaster and vaster as they approach. A bright dot labeled _H_ sits right at the bottom of the screen, and maybe a centimeter to the left are _D_ and _K._ He attempts at minimizing the window as the robot finishes her direction. 

“Do not die. The doors will open in one minute.” 

Despite the fast descent the map shows, Yixing can’t feel anything. Not even the slightest shake of the ship. Does this planet not have an atmosphere or something? Or is the technology just _that_ advanced as to barely be affected? If so, why isn’t it being recreated back on earth? Why is this kind of technology a secret?

As soon as a different voice (more robotic in contrast to the humanly RF) signals “ _DOOR, OPENING,”_ Yixing realizes he hasn’t turned his volume back up. 

“–even there? yixing wHY AREN’T YOU ANSWER–“ Too much! “–ING ME I’M TALking to you."

“Sorry!” Yixing apologizes, though this is the second time he has done this. Maybe Baekhyun shouldn’t be so loud. (Or maybe he should focus, but he likes the former better). 

“Why do you keep turning me down?!” Baekhyun scolds. Behind his voice, Yixing hears the loud door of the spaceship creak, and then a different atmosphere. A dead silent one that contrasts to the ship of hectic beeps. There is a gravelly substance under Baekhyun’s feet and a slight fuzz to his voice. 

“Because you’re pretty unpredictable when it comes to being loud so I just turn you down to be safe but then I forget you’re turned down.” 

“Well, don’t!” Yixing flinches at the volume, but still tears his fingers from the top of the keyboard. Baekhyun’s right. It’ll only make things harder, despite how much he wants to ignore him. Because apparently– no, _evidently,_ Yixing cannot do whatever he wants. Fuck all of this. 

He glances back to the orange button that had turned on the map. A good five seconds of staring and he realizes it is near the vitals button along with everything else Chanyeol had pointed out. A yellow one activates the environment’s statistics, showing the temperature and weather status and precipitation and gasses and air pressure and a bunch of other stuff he partially understands, the font becoming tinier and tinier with the significance of the factor. The purple one next to it shows the vitals, and Yixing splits all three tabs so he can see Baekhyun’s external body temperature lowering as he gets further and further away from the ship. 

“Is it cold?” Yixing asks. 

“Nah.” The -27°C on the screen says otherwise. “I dressed in the right stuff. Plus, I’m pretty sure your powers also change your body so you’re more adaptable to different planet’s conditions and stuff.”

“Oh, really? Wow.” This time, Yixing actually means his Oh, really? Wow. But now he wants to know exactly how it alters the body to be more adaptable. Perhaps Kyungsoo would know, and he would ask, but Yixing unfortunately doesn’t know how to talk to him right now. He can only see them on the map, where Jongin (whose agent name is Kai) and Kyungsoo (D.O) are with Baekhyun (Hyunee). Jongin’s in front while the other two follow behind.

“Can you see if there’s anything ahead? I think the other three are talking strategy. Also, I can’t because I really only have the mic and earpiece, but you can switch us to the community channel by scrolling on the thing above your right ear. It’s like an old radio.”

“Alright.” Moving ahead of them – which requires a click of a compass and then scrolling up with two fingers – Yixing finds relatively the same land. This planet seems to mostly consist of flat ground with arbitrary spike-like formations spurting out: the crystallizations RF was talking about; but none of them are too large. There’s a point he gets to where he can’t travel any further. He drags his fingers down the trackpad several times to no avail, as if he has reached the edge of the world in a game. He tries this with the other directions, too, and finds that he is in some sort of restriction. 

“Why can’t I see any more?” Yixing then realizes Baekhyun has no idea what he’s talking about. “I mean, on the map I can only go a certain distance far from you, which, by the way, has nothing. All directions.”

“Well, two things.” Baekhyun answers. “One, there’s only so far you can go because you’ll lose connection. And two, this place didn’t have any recon, which means there wasn’t a pre-mission where we’d just scope out the area to make plans. Means that what you’re seeing is generated by the ship’s sensors like, right now, and that this mission probably won’t be that hard.”

“That’s great to hear.” He then tries the last button in the group, which brings up a table of details titled **_MISSION ID:_ ** _17394841._ Under reads the agents going, objective, and Yixing realizes everything here is what the robot had went over during the mission briefing. The only thing he is unfamiliar with (on this window) is a second tab for updates, which looks more like a chat room than anything. Luckily, nothing like _oops you’re gonna die lol_ is there. In fact, it’s blank.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re such a dry conversationalist.” Baekhyun complains, distracting Yixing from his now four windows. Weird, because Junmyeon had said the opposite. But it makes sense; Yixing deliberately refrains from talking much with Baekhyun, because it seems the less he talks, the less the guy bothers him. Again with that toddler thing, _acknowledging bad behavior only encourages it._ It basically means _talking to Baekhyun only makes him more annoying._

“Okay.” 

A groan from the headset. “God, can you connect us to their channel?”

“Will it be loud and distracting and require me to talk?” 

Yixing asks this because if so, he doesn’t want to join it. 

“Yeah! It’ll be great!” 

Apparently, Baekhyun doesn’t get that. 

“Then no.” He says, adjusting himself so he’s sitting criss-cross. He presses that large red button, turning the fan on. 

“Ugh, you suck. I’m out of things to talk about.” 

A moment later Baekhyun gasps and and, “Okay, but you’re better than Jongdae. Like, _boy_ do I gotta tell you about him! So basically, you know how he’s super loud and obnoxious and perverted and all of those things I can’t fucking _stand?”_

_“._.. _Y_ _eah...”_

“Yeah, so it’s that except having to be with him for _hours_ on end with missions. God, it’s terrible! You’re actually quite refreshing, now that I think about it. But I mean, I’ve been with Jongdae a year so maybe everything’s refreshing.” Akin to the other times he has learned the durations here, Yixing feels his heart sink a bit lower. “But dude, I’m not kidding when I say he has some kind of super powered voice box. He’ll talk forever, about whatever, and a lot of the time it pertains to Minseok which I don’t really like because it’s fucking stupid. Like, I don’t want to hear you blab about how he’s so cute and you’re so happy to be in love with him! No one cares! Literally shut up!”

Yixing’s had enough exposure to pre-teen girl culture to know. “That sounds like you’re jealous of what he has.”

“No, it’s just– just annoying.” Baekhyun denies, and Yixing doesn’t push any further. Again, it’s his own problem if he doesn’t want to be honest with himself. And besides, he could be totally wrong. Unlikely, but possible. 

“But Jongdae's also funny. Like, we’d come out of missions with our stomachs sore and all that. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I know.” Yixing reminisces to nights of no sleep, where he’d spend hours bundled up in blankets with headphones and a laptop, trying to stifle himself from waking his mother up at an ungodly time. Or at Namjoon’s, in the living room or, on warm summer nights, on the roof when things are twice as funnier because it’s three in the morning and only because it’s three in the morning.

Suddenly, Yixing has the motive to make actual conversation (as he’s pretty much fucked with every single button in arms-length). It feels weird to share details about his life, but reminds himself of the instant friendship thing Junmyeon had talked about: it makes everything easier. “It would usually be super late at night, so I’d be laughing even harder trying to be quiet.”

“Really? Can’t relate.” Baekhyun replies. “Were you one of those, like, gamer dudes?”

Yixing notes the past tense, but refuses to use it. 

“No...” He says, but then thinks over his answer. It is _honest_ , but maybe not right. He gamed a lot, but didn’t think himself to fit the stereotype of dorito-eating overweight twenty-five year old still living in his mother’s basement. Gaming was a part of his life, but not the purpose. “Not exactly. But I’m not a party-social-butterfly either, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Hah, _I_ was.” To no one’s surprise Baekhyun says. “My area was pretty bland, so I liked to escape. To somewhere different, somewhere fun and dangerous.”

“Prostitution?”

Baekhyun snorts, breaking into a laugh. “No, honey. People can’t have sex with me by just _paying._ ”

On the map, Yixing again goes ahead of them. “How old are you?” North-east there is something suspicious and he zooms in to investigate.

“Eighteen.” Baekhyun answers. “But I’ve been doing it since I was like, what, fourteen?”

Yixing pauses. Fourteen? It’s not like it is utterly repulsive or anything, but it is a bit questionable. Puberty typically isn’t finished by then – with either gender – so wouldn’t everything be a little awkward, exacerbated by the lack of experience? He shrugs it off though, because everyone has to start somewhere. Maybe it’ll be awkward for Yixing, too. He wouldn’t know. Maybe he should start with a guy, because guys know guy parts better, unless they are of some religion where they’re forbidden from masturbation but Yixing probably wouldn’t be intimate with that kind of person (and it is likely they wouldn’t he because of the whole don’t-be-homosexual thing) so that isn’t a problem.

“What?” Baekhyun asks and Yixing only then realizes he’s been silent too long so it seems like he is silently scorning him. “Oh no, are you one of those super conservative _sex is a sin you’ll burn in hell_ people? In that case, I might have to rethink this relationship.”

“No, it’s not that.” Yixing says. “I’m not even religious. I’m multitasking and I can only do it well when I try and I’m not trying and also there is this big mountain thing to your north-east and it’s circular shaped and I think you should point the others to it.” 

“Oh, okay.” Baekhyun’s little dot on the map stops before turning that direction, the _D_ and _K_ stopping too before following suit. “So you’re just a flustered virgin not knowing what to say.” 

Yixing blanches. “That is literally _not_ what I said whatso–“

 _“Shh, shh.”_ Yixing hates how he can see Baekhyun trying to put a finger to his lips. He squeezes his lids shut in cringe. “It’s okay. Everyone’s–“

Suddenly, Yixing remembers the different channels. He reaches up to his right ear, feeling around the speaker before locating the scroller and turning it. A static sound blasts in his ear for a moment before several voices begin talking, mid-conversation. He hears Jongin for a moment before Baekhyun is switched, and he’s still finishing his speel.

“–grab them by the dick, or tits, and say: _you’re mine, baby._ Assert your dominance!”

Silence permeates the channel for what has to be ten seconds. 

“Baekhyun, what the _fuck?!”_

When the voice is Chanyeol’s, Yixing can’t hold back anymore. He bursts out into laughter, half-assedly attempting to mute himself so the others don’t have to hear him cackling. He glances over to Chanyeol, whose eyes are wide before a large grin surfaces, and then everyone else is laughing too. Everyone except Baekhyun, of course. The best kind of feeling.

Yixing’s eyes are teary by the time he calms down, mirth still tugging at the ends of his lips. He then tunes back into the conversation. Kyungsoo’s talking.

“The hell are you two talking about over there?” 

Luckily, Yixing gets to it before Baekhyun does. “He thought it was a good idea to give me sex advice.” 

Kyungsoo snorts.

“Because he’s a big virgin.” The spite in Baekhyun’s voice is clear as day. 

“What’s wrong with that?” Chanyeol sounds a little offended, and Yixing is rewarded even more by Baekhyun’s stammering.

“Well– nothing, but–“

“Hey!” Jongin shouts, interrupting whatever bullshit excuse Baekhyun had, “Kyungie– I mean Agent D.O, look!”

“For the last time, Jongin, you _don’t_ have to use the agent names.” Kyungsoo sounds a bit exasperated. Now that Yixing is in the community channel, it’s a lot less silent. He can hear the sigh of Kyungsoo, the mumbling of Chanyeol as he’s typing away, and even some wind the mics must be picking up. He refers to the environment window, seeing _20MPH OCCASIONAL WINDS_.

“What do you guys see?” Chanyeol’s voice comes in. Yixing can’t tell what he’s typing over there, but it’s worrying. Should _he_ be typing too? If so, what? The only useful thing he has done this whole mission is find a strange piece of land and embarrass Baekhyun. He goes back onto the map, scrolling to look over the terrain. 

“It’s a large hill, but I can’t see anything over.” Kyungsoo answers.

“It’s a horseshoe– no, ring shaped mountain.” Yixing answers, “There are those crystal things all around and there might be a cave at the far end. It is a really big space.”

Suddenly, he receives a notification on the fourth mission window on the updates tab.

 **_RF_05:_ ** _TARGET LOCATION IDENTIFIED BY AGENT LAY. OBSTACLE AND BONJIL UNTRACEABLE BY DETECTOR. PROCEED WITH CAUTION._

Yixing smiles, feeling slightly proud. Chanyeol reads what the robot sent out loud, and Yixing notices him readjust in his seat. He mimics, getting out of his criss-cross so he can access everything quicker. Does this mean there will be a big boss battle now, or something?

“Jongin, go to the top of the mountain.” Chanyeol says, “Tell us what you see.”

Instantly, the dot _K_ moves from its spot to the top of the mountain. Jongin takes a moment before, “The center looks like everything else with the crystals and stuff... there’s a lot of gas– oh! Oh my god! There’s something there!”

Yixing zooms in, but the map shows nothing but the land. No objects.

“Describe.” 

“It’s big, like, one of those large beach balls you see in the big racks in the stores. And it’s mostly black but has blue too. It’s ball-shaped. It’s like, glowing.” 

_“Maybe it’s an_ _orb,”_ Baekhyun has recovered from his embarrassment and is back with the snide remarks.

“Yeah!” Jongin chirps. “Good thinking!” 

Yixing keeps watching Chanyeol, who’s hunched over his station as his fingers race all sorts of different places. He’s doing all this while Yixing’s just sitting here dumbly. He looks back to the screen, telling himself he shouldn’t worry about being useful. He’s useful enough. Who located the area? Agent Lay did. That’s right. L-A-Y.

“Bring us up.” Kyungsoo says. The _K_ then returns to the _D_ and _H_ , and suddenly, all three are up.

“Yo, I can’t see anything up here.” Baekhyun says, “Like _damn,_ this shit worse than Seoul. Here, let me just... there.” 

By Jongin’s “Woah.” Yixing figures Baekhyun just did something to eradicate it. The three split up, Jongin going straight into the pit while Kyungsoo and Baekhyun trail the sides of the ring.

After a while of Yixing sitting idle and Chanyeol typing and the three dots getting further and further away, Kyungsoo speaks up. “I see it.” 

“See what, stupid–“ 

“The obstacle.” Kyungsoo cuts Baekhyun off. “Unless a giant white feline sitting by the orbs is just a friendly creature willing to help.”

“No one asked for your sarcasm, honey.”

 _“Guys,_ stop fighting...” Jongin whines. _K_ teleports to _D_. “Hey, I see it too! It’s so cute!”

“Baekhyun, can you find them and turn your camera on?” Chanyeol asks, then turning to Yixing. “When you get the window, right click and share it with me. I’m station 7.”

A few moments later, a shaky camera pops up in the middle of Yixing’s screen. Baekhyun’s downturned eyes take up most of it, focusing on something before he pulls it away into a selfie angle, smiling. “Can you see this hot stuff, Xing?” He asks. He is wearing the same fighter-pilot-janitor combination outfit he had on when he kidnapped him. The camera quality exceeds Yixing’s expectations, as he can see even the moon-like texture of the cyan ground. Behind Baekhyun’s head he sees a distant crystal, twinkling purple and black.

“Yeah, I see you.” Yixing right clicks and a lot more than he anticipated show up. As Baekhyun blows the camera a kiss and does some other things he doesn’t bother to pay mind to, Yixing squints through the options and finds _‘SHARE WINDOW’._

“Hi Baek. You’re on.” Chanyeol greets. The camera is now turned around, pointing down the mountain. Yixing can see most of the pit other than what gasses obscure.

“Are you guys ready?” Kyungsoo asks, “I think it knows we’re here.” 

“Bring Baekhyun to you, Jongin.” A split second later, Yixing sees Jongin on the screen. His fashion, like Baekhyun’s, is also ridiculous. He’s wearing a black t-shirt with suspenders and short sleeves that messily zipper into a ripped fishnet. He has goggles that look like something a highschooler would wear in their science lab– and they aren’t even on! They’re on his neck! The camera aims down at Jongin’s grabbing Baekhyun’s hand. After a warping sound, the ground changes pattern. 

Baekhyun stumbles, then picking his head up to see Jongin walking over to Kyungsoo, whose wide (maybe he’s eternally surprised) eyes are aimed at the pit. Kyungsoo’s outfit is at least a bit more appropriate for super galactic missions, but he looks more like a coal miner than someone who’d save the universe. 

“There.” Kyungsoo points, the camera following his arm. Yixing blinks, trying to make sure that the giant white cat he’s seeing isn’t just a trick of the fog. But no, there really _is_ a gargantuan feline sitting pretty in the middle of a crater on the planet he’s supposed to be collecting magical orbs from. RF_05 wasn’t kidding when it said that the cat was huge. From what Yixing’s seeing, a person would equate to the size of its toe. It licks its paw innocently. 

_“Aww,_ it’s so cute~” Yixing looks to see Chanyeol beaming at his screen like a child. 

“And it can kill you in an instant.” Kyungsoo says monotone.

“Yeah...” Chanyeol’s face falters, “But it’s still so frickin’ _cute.”_

Kyungsoo scoffs, an endearing tone contradicting him. “You’re such a kid. Only if you were out here.”

“Then you’d see how cute it is in person!” Jongin adds gleefully, and Baekhyun turns just in time to see Kyungsoo shoot him a glare, shaking his head with a cutthroat gesture. He then looks back, but down more, so Yixing can only see the cat’s legs. His eyes trail along the tower-like thing until he reaches its foot, where a paw bends over the orb Jongin was talking about. The surface of it is mostly black; blue patterns outlining the sides. Baekhyun gets a bit closer, scanning the area around to spot another. 

“Maroon one!” Baekhyun’s long finger comes into the camera, pointing at the orb. 

“No, that’s pink.” Jongin corrects.

“No, it’s maroon.”

“No, Pink.”

“Maroon.”

“Pink.“

“Maroon–“

“It’s red.” Kyungsoo interrupts. “It’s _clearly_ red– hey! Baekhyun, where are you going?”

Baekhyun looks back over his shoulder to where he had walked away from. “It’s fine, I’m just getting closer to the– _AHH!”_

All of the sudden, the camera blurs as it spins in all directions. It takes a moment and a scream for Yixing to realize that Baekhyun must be falling. His eyes dart to the vitals, but before he can read anything, small red notifications suddenly start popping up all over the place. 

_WARNING: MINOR HIT TAKEN_

_WARNING: MINOR HIT TAKEN_

_WARNING: MEDIUM HIT TAKEN_

Despite his hate for him, Yixing panics, eyes wide as he clicks on the warnings, trying to do _something_ to help but all he can do is watch the vitals veer into extreme highs and lows and warnings continue into covering what he needs to see. On the body tab, the avatar snaps into several painful positions as red flares in different areas.

_WARNING: MEDIUM HIT TAKEN_

_WARNING: MEDIUM HIT TAKEN_

Everything goes to an abrupt stop when Baekhyun lands supine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hihi
> 
> if it sounded like I was making fun of the outfits in the power mv that is because I was <3 (don't get me wrong tho cutest things EVER)


	14. Confrontation of Inadequacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite an anticlimactic beginning (and middle), Yixing finally gets some action towards the end of the mission. Unfortunately, like almost everything else in this story so far, it doesn't go his way.

**WITHIN** the next couple of seconds, shouts of confusion and panic taper into silence. The camera is pointing upwards, showing the _long_ fall Baekhyun had. It has to be at least three stories. 

“Baekhyun?!” The worry is evident in Jongin’s voice, the call of which is repeated by Chanyeol and Kyungsoo and almost Yixing except whatever he was going to say is forgotten when the camera shifts.

 _“... I’m..._ _okay...”_ Comes out more of a groan as Baekhyun sits up, camera aimed to his lap where small pebbles and dirt have stained the pants.

“Jesus Christ! _This_ is why you need to watch where you’re fucking going!” The fear in Kyungsoo’s tone is all gone, replaced by remonstration. Yixing practically gets whiplash because in the span of three seconds he had thought Baekhyun had died, realized Baekhyun hadn't died – despite the several WARNINGs all over the screen –, and listened to Baekhyun get _scolded_ for almost dying.

“Shut the fuck up, Kyungsoo.” Baekhyun slowly stands. Strangely enough, all the warnings are disappearing one by one and his vitals are returning to normal. His body temperature had dropped, heart rate sped up, blood pressure risen, respiration drastically plummeted, and several more detriments Yixing didn’t take AP biology to understand, but it all starts going to homeostasis once he gets up. 

Until he turns to see two giant eyes staring right at him (spoiler alert: they’re not Kyungsoo’s!).

The scene unfolds like a horror movie: Baekhyun remains still, petrified in his spot for a few long seconds as the eyes narrow. When the mouth slowly starts to open, revealing a saber tooth that’s at least as long as his forearm, he screams. The camera once again shakes into chaos as he starts running.

“Get down and help me!” Baekhyun cries with urgency. Yixing watches his heart rate rise right back up to an unhealthy 140BPM. 

"Jongin! Go onto the cat and plant a tracker so I can see it.” Chanyeol directs hastily. Jongin’s dot then moves into the center of the ring, and suddenly, a new dot appears. The letters _K-I-T-T-U_ appear chronologically, but then the _U_ deletes and is replaced with a _Y_ before it starts to move around. _KITTY_ is right on _H’s_ tail.

“Yixing! Tell me where to go!” Baekhyun’s shout snaps Yixing out of his not-helping. He zooms in on the area, trying to figure out what will be a barrier and what won’t, but it’s difficult from a computer generated birds-eye view. The camera isn't any help either because although it shows the ground and the space in front of him, it bobs emphatically with the sprint.

“Continue that way and stay against the base of the mountain.” He says, hoping that won’t fuck anything up.

“Kyungsoo, go westward across the mountain and meet Baekhyun at the bottom.” _D_ begins following in the direction of _H_. Then, Jongin’s dot reappears by Kyungsoo.

“I’ll get it away.” He informs, though it could've been heard through the channel, and then he’s gone again. While Kyungsoo scolds him to not use his power in excess, Jongin teleports around the cat in what Yixing thinks is an attempt to divert its attention.

Despite all the action, there’s nothing he can do but observe.

He isn’t out there, which makes it surreal; almost to the point of inauthenticity. But that’s not disappointing one bit, no– it’s relieving. It’s as if this is all an action movie he’s merely watching, where the characters aren’t actually hurt and he doesn’t have to fear for them all too much because there is that barrier of inexperience: despite the current proximity, he won’t reach a true level of understanding until he participates as a field agent himself.

This is why Yixing soon gets bored. He knows he shouldn’t be, or at least thinks he shouldn’t be because in most movies even mission control is intensely occupied with their computer-work, but reality proves otherwise. Although the three out there (from what he gathers from the rushed words and vociferous meows and rapidly moving dots on the map and shaky camera) are battling, it’s all more spread out. Like a tiny clump of spicy jam on a gigantic piece of toast, the five-minute CGI animated space battle he’d see in the sci-fi movie diffuses itself into the wide span of hours, giving the pastry a too-bland quantity everywhere and a therefore bleak taste. Not every moment is action, and there is far more regathering and planning than just that one _almost-going-to-die-but-then-congregating-and-having-inspirational-talk-to-beat-the-final-boss_. Chanyeol is the only one matching the sci-fi movies. There is something that has him typing like there’s no tomorrow (or he has a five page essay due next period that he completely forgot about).

Yixing tries to stay attentive, fingers ready at the keyboard and eyes boring into Baekhyun’s camera, but he soon loses focus. He returns to his criss-cross position, face in his palms as he watches the screen and probably simultaneously deteriorates his eyesight. With frequent glances to the busy Chanyeol, he routinely checks all of his windows, as if there’s something he’s missing. If he is, though, it’s not his fault. He wasn’t informed. (Unless he was and then forgot. In that case... oops).

This what happens for the next two hours:

Yixing gets up to stretch.

Chanyeol gives a horrified look as if he had just stripped naked. He screeches: “WE’RE ON A MISSION, DUDE! SIT THE FUCK DOWN!”

Yixing falls half-asleep.

Baekhyun screams and he immediately shoots up to check his stats. He hits his knee harshly, exacerbating the already forming bruise from earlier. As he’s finding Baekhyun alive and well, the guy giggles. “Haha guys, just kidding. I’m fine.”

Yixing finds a cheeto bag in a drawer and although he doesn’t exactly favourite cheetos he is starving so he mutes himself and eats as discreetly as possible. 

But apparently he hadn’t muted himself because Kyungsoo then goes: “Who’s _eating?!_ Yixing!? You too?! Is it the cheetos? Don’t you fucking _dare_ get those cheeto-dust fingers on any of the keyboards! And put them back, they’re mine!”

Yixing takes a whole twenty minutes to work up the courage to minimize all the windows and go back to reading the emails.

Not a split second after he reaches INBOX Baekhyun lets out a pained yelp and Chanyeol demands, “Yixing! Baek’s stats, now!”

Yixing wants to cry.

He suffers alone and in silence. 

When the mission reaches a timestamp further than any movie (06:00:34), Yixing feels himself falling asleep again. He would be too, if not for the _HOLY SHITs_ and _MOTHERFUCKER_ s and _THAT’S ONE BIG PUSSY_ s ringing in his ears every minute. He has half a mind to remove his headset, but he’s already not helping enough as it is. Whenever Chanyeol has looked to him, he's pretended to be busy, typing some bullshit in a random tab and then deleting right after. But now he’s even sick of pretending to be not bored out of his mind. 

Yixing waits for a moment of calm before he works up the guts to stand, removing his headphones and tiptoeing over to Chanyeol. He is going to ask him if he’s supposed to be doing something right now. And, being dishonest, he would say it is because he really cares about the mission and does not want to miss out on anything crucial. However, he cannot be dishonest, so he’ll just say the last part and how he’s feeling like there is something amiss.

Just as he’s one step away from tapping the guy’s shoulder, a booming metallic noise startles him. The ship shakes slightly. Yixing dives back to his seat, fumbling to get his headphones back on and cursing himself for waiting too long. He turns the volume back up (around an hour ago he had decided that maybe one notch lower wouldn’t hurt. Or two. Or three...).

“I’m there!” Jongin exclaims. “Back room, right?”

“Yeah.” Chanyeol answers.

“The one I went into halfway there, Jongjong.” Baekhyun adds.

“Baekhyun, backup please!” Kyungsoo shouts.

“Coming!”

Yixing watches the camera. Baekhyun catches up to Kyungsoo, who is currently forming large chunks of land with his hands and hurling them wherever. He thought his power was force, though?

“How can you do that, Kyungsoo?” Yixing asks. “I thought you had force as a power.”

“And element– _ergh–_ control.” He grunts as he pushes forward, unearthing several rocks and crystals. “But now’s not the time to ask questions! Baek, I’m getting tired!” 

“On it!” The camera pans down to Baekhyun’s palms. Two intricate zodiac-reminiscent patterns illuminate in a yellow light, growing so bright that the camera is – somehow – imprinted after he looks up. Baekhyun turns, pointing the hands away from Kyungsoo and the cat and casting a large beam of light. The cat immediately books it that direction, paw making a sonic slam on the light’s spot.

Chanyeol squeals girlishly, “Oh my gosh, it’s actually playing! Baek, can you show it on camera?”

“Yes–“

“No.” Kyungsoo interjects. “This isn’t the time to mess around.”

“But _Soo...”_ Serious mission control agent Chanyeol breaks into whining child Chanyeol. “I haven’t seen anything this cute in forever. _Please?”_

“... Fine, whatever. Just don’t be stupid, Baekhyun.” 

“I’m never stupid, sweetie.”

Yixing now sees the gargantuan feline running around the crater, chasing whatever light Baekhyun beams or rock Kyungsoo throws. Every now and then he spots Jongin appear for a split-second, grabbing one of the rolling orbs and then disappearing with it. 

Soon, Kyungsoo asks. “How much have you gotten, Jongin?” 

“Three. On the way to twelve!” Jongin answers.

“Twelve?” Yixing questions.

“Um, yeah. Didn’t you pay attention during the mission meeting?” Baekhyun just _has_ to go out of his way to be rude. 

“Yes, but I don’t get it. If they’re for _our_ powers, why are there twelve? There are only nine of us.” 

Jongin laughs, “No, there are twelve, stupid.”

“There are?”

Suddenly, the channel goes dead silent. Yixing checks his volume, but it seems to be fine. Did he lose connection?

No, he didn’t, because then Kyungsoo speaks. “I’ll explain later. Just stop asking questions that don’t have to do with the mission, it's getting annoying.” Although Yixing would argue that this does have to do with the mission (the orbs! _Hello!?),_ he shuts up. “Baekhyun, to your left!”

A sheepish feeling crawls up his neck, bringing heat to his face. He is not used to being the pitiful one in a group; the newbie who doesn’t know anything. It rarely happens because he avoids putting himself in those kinds of situations in which there would inevitably be embarrassment. But now he is forced into that kind of situation head first, which not only brings the inevitable humiliation, but also frustration. And he has no idea where to put that rage. Screaming into a pillow and telling the ‘universe’ off does not bring satisfaction, because ultimately no real justice is served. Taking his anger out on these people is, however enticing, also not the best idea, considering he may be with them for months... years...

“Nine!” Jongin’s announcement snaps Yixing back to attention. Nine out of twelve. That means they are close. Close to going back to the EXO-M dorm and sleeping (Yixing’s not a lazy person, but one minute here equates the exhaustion of an hour). 

After _K_ disappears from the stop, Yixing opens his mouth to ask which part of the ship exactly he’s putting them in, but then remembers he’s not supposed to ask questions. Instead, he guesses that it is a part under them, because usually the control center for something is at the top center, like a brain. Just to be sure, he scans the place, not finding any doors near the ceiling. Or anywhere else, for that matter. 

The camera is now watching the cat from a distance. Baekhyun then glances to Kyungsoo, who is doubled over trying to catch his breath. At the same time, Chanyeol lets out a worried shout: 

“Jongin! Get away from there!”

Yixing is too slow: he looks to the map and sees _KITTY_ in dangerous proximity to where _K_ appears. As he processes that, Jongin lets out a yelp and then a loud slashing penetrates the mic. When he hastily widens the camera tab, seeing Jongin far away and a red color, Chanyeol is already out of his seat, grabbing Yixing by the shoulder.

“Go to my station, control the ship.” He says, leaving no room for questions or even a simple _wait dawg what no_ as he forthwith exits out a door Yixing _knows_ wasn’t there ten seconds ago.

_Go to my station, control the ship._

Yixing can do that. Well, the first part, at least. He gets up, removing his headset and relocating to Chanyeol's seat, putting the other headset on and looking at the computer and _holy shit._

So _this_ is what he has been doing all along.

“Kyung, try to force the other three back. Like that thing you and Sehun did on fifty-two.”

Not that Yixing can exactly define _this,_ because there is so damn much going on in one screen. In addition to the five windows Yixing recognizes (but with double the vital pages), there is also a console with a half-typed code and a window of the ship including several more tabs. Yixing figures that since the code is what Chanyeol was actively working on (he can surmise from how it is maximized above the other windows), it is important and he should probably finish it...

_STRUCT! group_info init_groups = { .POD_8. = 4, 10, 12, 61, 88; }_

_}RESULT: 5x ; ; ; ; ;_

_ <ima cmpt=”https://i.imgur.com/mLehAOS.jpg”> _

_}RESULT: 2834W ; ; ; x ; ;_

_out_undo_partial_alloc: JFe282AdlF2ff2qua781RRA71####_

_while (--i >= 0) {= 81RRA71####HDK1hdhSDK27dD _

_free_page((unsigned long)group_info- >blocks[i]); { = K_ _

  
  


Okay, scratch that. 

“I’ve got it!”

“Baek, are you holding up?”

“I’m fine! Take Jongin!” 

Yixing will just routinely check every tab of every window and make sure (read: pray) that there is nothing else wrong. In the event of such, he’ll ask what to do about it. In the event of not getting an answer, he’ll hope his death is a quick one. 

Because Yixing can’t decipher any meaning in the code but the words, he decides to explore the other window new to him. It is similar to the topographic map, except it is pink and a model of the spaceship. There is a _L_ dot where he’s sitting, and a _DB_ that is at the bottom – aha! – compartment of the ship moving around. Soon, Chanyeol exits, then appearing on the second map as he quickly advances towards the _K._

“Jongin, can you hear us?”

“...Yes... hurry, please...”

Opening Jongin’s vitals, Yixing sees a huge gash cut into his avatar’s chest, starting from one shoulder all the way down his torso. His circulation decreases fast as a _WARNING: FOREIGN SUBSTANCE INTRUDING_ enters his bloodstream. Yixing’s eyes widen. And to think that’s from a _cat scratch!_

Meanwhile, Baekhyun is distracting said cat with light beams. It would be cute to watch if it weren’t for the dire situation happening outside the camera. Kyungsoo is trying to bring the final three orbs to the ship. A notification pops up on Yixing’s screen.

 **_UPDATE:_ ** _FÉLICETTE VITALS TRACKED. VIEW MISSION UPDATES FOR MORE INFO._

Flashes just before yet _another_ window much reminiscent to the agents’ vitals opens, only this time the avatar is shaped like a cat. It shows many small bruises here and there and a significant scar around its eye. Yixing would almost pity it, if it weren’t trying to kill them right now. 

“Hyung...” The pain in Jongin’s voice makes Yixing shudder. Is he going to die? Now, the _DB_ has met the _K_ and both dots are slowly travelling back. 

Until _KITTY_ catches on.

A yell of Chanyeol’s follows, and Yixing looks between Jongin’s vitals and to the cat’s to see who wins. Luckily, Félicette experiences a sudden increase in temperature as a third-degree burn strikes its left leg, which is soon followed by a bruise-worthy blow to the face.

“I got you! Go!” Kyungsoo shouts.

 _DB_ and _K_ start retreating towards the spaceship, _KITTY_ advancing _D_ w hile _H_ sneaks around its back. Yet, despite all the action, Yixing is still idle. The only movement he’s done this whole mission is get up from his station and walk to Chanyeol’s, which is maybe ten feet. But at least he’s not falling asleep. 

What exactly happened to Jongin, though? He has been scratched, no doubt, but how bad is it? Is the avatar accurate? Yixing has never really seen one of those movie gruesome wounds up close, and strangely enough, is curious to see it in a completely non-sadist way. Just morbid curiosity. Everyone has it.

“Jongin, hang on buddy.”

Ten minutes later, Kyungsoo has collected the last three orbs, Baekhyun has switched with Chanyeol in bringing Jongin back to the ship, and they are almost here. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo are holding Félicette off for the time being. Yixing no longer watches the battle through the camera, but rather sees the wounded Jongin in Baekhyun’s arms (he’s surprised that either A. Baekhyun is that strong or B. Jongin is that light). The camera doesn’t capture any details of the gouge other than the blood drenching his front.

“Kyungsoo, see that cave?”

“Yes.”

“There, throw one there.”

 _KITTY_ runs to a corner near the landform, subsequently taking a hit to the head as a rock tears from the ledge above. The cat falls, prostrate, as the boulder rolls off its head. The past six hours of sonic meows and explosions fall into a deafening silence, the only sound the gravel under Baekhyun’s boots and Jongin’s sharp breaths and the occasional wind.

“... Is it dead?” Kyungsoo finally says.

“I don’t know.” Chanyeol answers. 

After checking the heartbeat, an above average BPM, Yixing confirms. “It’s not dead. Head trauma knocked it unconscious.” 

“Okay... we should go.” Chanyeol says.

“No.” Kyungsoo refutes. “We have to kill it.”

“But it’s not part of our mission to kill it, Soo.” 

“It’s safer to retreat if it’s dead.”

“But–“

“But what?” Kyungsoo’s calm voice gains a vexed momentum “Are you seriously suggesting that we leave it there so it can come kill us on the way out?”

“No, but... it won’t.” Chanyeol’s voice softens into a whine. “It’ll just lay there and heal and then be able to live happily ever after only without the orbs but that’s okay because it can find other toys.” 

“Chanyeol, you’re being ridiculous–“ 

“Just let it go.” Baekhyun interrupts, “You’re wasting time.”

A tense pause before Kyungsoo speaks. “Fine, I’ll just have to do it myself.”

 _D_ advances to _KITTY_ before _DB_ quickly catches up, roadblocking the way. 

“Kyungsoo, please don’t!” Chanyeol pleads. “What if it has a family?! A lover?! Little baby kittens?! You’re ruining all of their lives as well!”

Yixing almost wants to laugh at the seriousness of the guy’s tone, but stifles himself. He has shown himself a bad enough person as it is. 

“Chanyeol, please tell me you’re kidding.” 

When there is no answer, Kyungsoo sighs.

“Well,” He continues, “I guess they’ll all be very sad.”

After the cinematic cry of _No!,_ Yixing diverts to Félicette’s vitals. An even larger piece of land than before crashes down over the avatar. There is a split second of its eyes flickering up before its whole skull is crushed. Yixing cringes at how realistic the technology is with how the guts splatter everywhere, blood staining the ground in all directions. A moment later, the eyeball that was squeezed halfway out from under the boulder pops, its liquid mixing with the blood. Oh goodness, he _really_ wouldn’t want to be Chanyeol right now. A big notification appears in the center of the screen:

 **_HEALTH – FÉLICETTE:_ ** _SUBJECT IS DEAD_

And then:

 **_RF_05:_ ** _OBSTACLE ELIMINATED BY AGENT D.O. GOOD WORK._

Suddenly, a door bursts open, and in comes Baekhyun, panting, with Jongin in his arms. Both of their outfits are all mussed and dirty, and from his seat Yixing can see the sweat and space-rock on Baekhyun’s forehead. Jongin’s doing a rather uncomfortable looking partial stand in the other’s arms, facing upwards to give a view of all the blood staining his front. 

“Well– _help me!_ God dammit!” Baekhyun gestures frantically with his hands.

Yixing immediately removes the headset and rushes over. He places his arms behind Jongin’s back, taking him from Baekhyun and gingerly lowering him to the ground. However, at the same time Baekhyun presses a button that sprouts a cot about two feet from where Yixing sits him, so he has to awkwardly pick the suffering boy back up just to hoist him onto it.

He kneels, lifting Jongin’s booted left foot over the thing before looking over his body. The nasty gouge catches his eye, trailing all the way from his left shoulder to his waist. The avatar really wasn’t exaggerating. From the looks of it, it’s at least an inch deep, revealing bright pink skin that makes Yixing want to puke. It looks so painful, only manifested further on Jongin’s face, countenance somewhere between crying and fainting. 

“What do I do?” Yixing looks up to Baekhyun who has acquired a white cloth and is wiping the sweat from his face. 

“Fuck, I don’t know...” He tosses the rag to Yixing. He takes the hint and uses it on Jongin (and holy shit, he’s _soaked_ with sweat– to think about the -27°C out there...). _“Maybe_ use your powers?!”

Yixing’s eyes widen as heat rushes to his face. His powers?! Shit, this is the _perfectly_ demanding instance for his powers. But unfortunately, 

“I still can’t.” And shouldn’t Baekhyun know this?

 _“Seriously?_ Y–you...” Baekhyun stammers, shaking his head with a distressed sigh. “Right. Right. Sorry. Forgot. Just... go get some medical supplies. They’re downstairs, third room on the left.”

“Okay.” Yixing doesn’t waste a second getting up, immediately exiting the situation. 

Steep stairs lead to a brightly lit hall that is almost as narrow as a public bus. Every door is lined with buttons and wires, almost making Yixing think it’s an incomplete build. From the corner, Kyungsoo and Chanyeol suddenly come running, but slow down to awkwardly move around him. They smell weird. Not like B.O and blood, like he would’ve expected, but like something foreign. Probably the space rock. 

“What are you doing down here?” Kyungsoo asks, removing his mic as he steps around him.

“Medical.” Yixing’s curt answer is enough.

“But don’t you heal?” Kyungsoo stops in his tracks.

“No… not yet.” The longer they stare, the smaller Yixing feels.

There’s an exchange between Kyungsoo’s mouth, his eyes, and Chanyeol’s eyes. He’s about to say something, but Chanyeol shakes his head and nudges him forward. With that, the other two rush upstairs. A slight wave of shame washes through Yixing as he turns and locates the room.

And god, could this get any more stressful?!

The room is _packed_ with stuff. It reminds Yixing of the place with the old TV, because miscellaneous gadgets line every shelf and occupy most of the floor space. This with the innumerable buttons make everything all the more overwhelming. He shuts the door behind him, stepping over a couple crates to center himself.

He wants to cry.

Yixing had started to think he would get through his first mission without too much difficulty, but now he’s suddenly immersed into action and the feeling of inadequacy is becoming overbearing. He tells himself he shouldn’t care, as he opens a drawer and digs through it to find nothing medical, but he does. The little notes on his incompetence have dug through the thin wall he’s been able to make with their personality flaws. It’s not an intellectual competition, but rather life and death he’s dealing with. Being useless really abrades his esteem, his security. In a normal world, it would be fine. He would heal. He would be okay. But in this world, where he doesn’t have so much as even _logic_ to back him up, he’s not fine. He won’t be okay. 

After Yixing scours three-fourths of the room to no avail, the panic really settles in. The anxiety is like chains on every part of his body, weighing him down as he searches through the final section. He doesn’t care about disordering anymore, and is practically throwing things off shelves looking for a medical kit. It has been what, five minutes? They’re wondering where he is. They’re counting on him to, if he’s going to take this long, at least come up with something helpful. Is Jongin’s life in _his_ hands? Oh, god. That is _really_ going to– 

Aha!

A large white kit with a black cross has to be it. Just to make sure, Yixing opens it, forthwith shutting when he sees a bandage roll. Practically tripping over all the stuff to get out, he sprints back up the stairs, stopping short of the door to catch his breath for a moment before bracing himself to enter the:

“Where the– _Yah!_ What took you so long?!

“There you are!" 

“Jesus fuck, finally!” 

Yixing ignores the comments as he makes a beeline to Jongin, also ignoring the rough way Kyungsoo rips the case from his hands. The doe-eyed boy opens it fully, pushing a button where a large station then erects. He delves into it, clearly knowing what he’s doing.

Yixing sits against the wall a couple feet away, ready to help. His eyes travel to Chanyeol, who is back at the station again typing away. Is it just the glare, or is there a wet glint to his eyes? When the giant sniffs, Yixing knows the answer. Chanyeol’s really crying because Kyungsoo killed a space-cat. He then looks to the comforting hand on Chanyeol's shoulder, following up the wrist and arm to Baekhyun who's staring right at him, a disapproving expression on his face. Why does he look so different when he’s serious? Scary, even.

“What took you so long?” Kyungsoo glances up at the question as well, expectant.

“I couldn’t find it right away...” Yixing’s voice emerges dry, so he clears his throat before elaborating. “The room has so much stuff.”

“Didn’t you get a tour of the pods?” Kyungsoo asks while dripping something onto Jongin, who is now shirtless. The latter hisses in pain, stifling everything into a whimper. 

“No, I did not.” Perhaps it would make it better to also add, “And I’ve also only gotten one training for my power.”

Kyungsoo’s head shoots up again, this time with a glare so scornful Yixing wants to disappear right there. “And you didn’t think it was a good idea to go and _learn_ your power before your first mission?”

What is he talking about? “It– It wasn’t on my schedule. My schedule only gave me one session.” 

“Yeah, _gave_.” A passive-aggressive poison fills his words. “I don’t think you quite know how things work around here... the schedule is for _help._ Is the bare _minimum_ of what you’re expected to do. Has it never occurred to you–“ Suddenly, Jongin cries out, and Kyungsoo takes a moment to transform into a loving mother and console him. Yixing relaxes too, until he’s glared at again.

“Has it ever occurred to you to take some fucking responsibility and go learn yourself? That _maybe_ since you’re on this spaceship where you know how nothing works and you have a power you should try to _learn_ what’s going on?! And _not_ go play video games and just sleep all damn day?!” 

Yixing’s rendered speechless.

The lack of sympathy in this guy apalls him. Does he not understand a _single_ thing Yixing has gone through?! Does he not understand that Yixing has been given literally _zero_ incentive to do anything here?! And he thought Kyungsoo was going to be one of his favourites. 

However, Yixing stops himself from yelling all of this to assess.

Kyungsoo _has_ seemed like a genuine guy up until now, and now includes a very tense situation that would get any genuine guy stressed. Jongin’s cries and the immediate diversion of attention corroborate that. Kyungsoo has every excuse to be pissed. And, despite the harsh way he put it, he’s partially right. Yixing hasn’t made it a priority of his to exactly figure out everything, as he has been more focused on the people because he wants to decipher the things he is familiar with first. 

But still, Kyungsoo can _not_ blame him.

“Have you not been in the same situation as me?” Yixing responds. “I didn’t ask to be here. I don’t know what’s going on and have been told barely _anything_. Why would I _want_ to go explore all the details of this place if I can’t even fathom what’s in front of me?” 

None of them bat an eyelash. Kyungsoo has seemed to shun him, even. 

So he continues. “And it doesn’t help that I’ve been dead sick for the past–“

“Blah blah _blah,”_ Baekhyun spits, making a talking motion with his hand. When the aghast Yixing looks, he flourishes it with a roll of his eyes. 

_“I’m newbie Yixing and I’ve been abducted onto this spaceship and_ oh-em-gee, _it’s terrible! I don’t know what’s going on and I sound like a robot and Baekhyun's a meanie and, ugh! I HATE my life!”_ He stomps on the floor like a child, his fists balled at his sides. The smirk on his face says playful, but his eyes suggest something else… 

_Wow._

An incredulous scoff escapes Yixing, somewhere between laughing and crying. Whatever tirade bubbling at his throat he swallows. It’s not worth it. He blinks away the stinging at his eyes, because no, he won’t fucking _cry_ in front of these guys. That'll only corroborate the joke he seems to be here. Shit– he shouldn’t even be _caring_ about judgement! Fuck this. This is why he doesn’t associate with people. This is why he wishes humans were beings of no emotion and society functioned in a pragmatically organized manner. This is why he secludes himself to his room, his mind, his judgement: where he’s guaranteed safety forever. 

Now, he doesn’t have any of them. 

For the remainder of the ride, Yixing is silent. In fact, everyone is. The only sounds in the room are Jongin’s cries, Kyungsoo’s hushes, and the knuckles Yixing can’t refrain from cracking until Kyungsoo gives him a look, so he resorts to fiddling with the drawstring of his sweatpants. Baekhyun soon occupies the station Yixing was at, assisting Chanyeol in whatever it is he’s doing. The journey back seems to take double the time, though it was only fifteen minutes there. Yixing spends most of the time watching Jongin on the cot, heaving chest slowing and slowing until it’s finally at a sleeping pace. Kyungsoo had placed a bunch of different things on the wound, most likely for cleaning because he then stitches the wound up like a full-blown surgeon. Now, there are a bunch of crosshatches trailing down his body. Jongin won’t be okay. He won’t magically heal in the next scene. No miracles will happen. This will affect him for the rest of his life. The scene of Baekhyun replays over and over again, those words leaving his mouth, his feign of an indignant child, and despite Yixing telling himself he's just a fucking asshole it still stings every single time.

This is nothing like the sci-fi movies. It’s not cool. It’s not exciting. It’s not fun.

It’s terrifying. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Baekhyun was alive all along. I couldn't have killed him ~this~ early in the story! (Am I foreshadowing or being evil?) But sadly Félicette had 2 take 1 for the team #rip :(((( 
> 
> It also seems Yixing's lack of doing anything actually substantial for exo comes to bite him in the ass, but who can blame him? (Ksoo and baek certainly can)
> 
> Thank u for reading omg kisses muah


	15. A Crush because That will Certainly Help Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing participates in the most Earth-like things he has done since he's gotten here: dinner and a movie. Nice. Something else from Earth happens as well, but it's not so nice.

**YIXING DECIDES** his third least-worst wake up is right now, because although the pair of eyes looming over him are rather startling, there is no screaming in his ear nor seizing of limbs nor sudden excruciating pain. So it ranks pretty high.

When he squints, the feline eyes above him widen, immediately sliding out of his vision. Yixing blinks the sleep out of his eyes, fighting the weight of a half-finished rest as he props himself up on an elbow and looks over the edge of his bed to where Minseok stands. The guy lifts a hand up, giving a wave although Yixing clearly knows he’s right there.

“Hi... It’s almost dinner. We get together for dinners after missions, as sort of a team bonding thing.” Minseok explains. To his right – but Yixing’s left – the metal door is open, meaning Yixing will probably have to leave, like now.

Leave, like now...

“Right.” To his dismay, Yixing recalls the details he got on the dinners by Baekhyun. He knows he has no choice but to go, so he doesn’t waste any time complaining when he can just climb down the bunk and throw on some slippers. 

When he joins Minseok, he says, “Thanks.” But not because he was worried he was going to miss the dinner because he genuinely likes the people here, no, but because he was worried he was going to miss the dinner because he is genuinely scared of not meeting the obligations here. Giving a hum in response, Minseok leads the way maybe a step ahead, the perfect distance to be too far to be all buddy-buddy and too close to be rude. 

This means Yixing has the chance to weigh the pros and cons of going to this dinner. When given a difficult decision, this is usually his go to. The only difference this time is that (he is in space, among others, and) he doesn’t exactly have a choice, but it still feels reassuring to do so anyway.

Pros: not being disliked even more, authentic food, talking to Junmyeon about the mission because for some reason he thinks Junmyeon will be a bit more sympathetic than _Has it ever occurred to you to take some fucking responsibility and go learn yourself?_

“You sure slept a lot–“

Cons: waking up in the middle of his five hour nap and therefore one of the deeper stages of his sleep cycle so he’s then fatigued for the rest of his conscious duration, inevitably encountering the people and topic of the mission, socializing, unexpected non-authentic food, not talking to Junmyeon about the mission because they’re not in private therefore Yixing should not express _everything_ he wants to say unless he wants to be disliked even more.

Okay, so maybe not the best ratio, but it at least gives him an idea of what to anticipate. Fifty-fifty percent chance of mediocre municipal food, inevitable awkward conversation, and an overlay of fatigue that’s only exacerbated by all of the socializing. However, the food might be good. And judging by what Minseok’s wearing, the setting won’t be very formal either. Most likely something like getting takeout in a college dormitory. Akin to the first time Yixing was with all guys at once, except this time he doesn’t get to faint to get out of it. 

Also, did Minseok say something? 

Yixing looks up to see expectant eyes and there’s then that _oh, I did it again._ He swears it’s nothing intentional. This time. 

“Sorry.” The apology and sheepish smile are innate. “What were you saying?” 

Luckily, Minseok chuckles, meaning he probably doesn’t mind. “Gosh, you really are tired. When you came back, you passed right out. Not even a _hello."_

“Sounds accurate.” Yixing can’t even remember post-mission. After standing up from the ship to leave, the vertigo had hit him and never went away until he next woke up. 

“Was the mission really hard, then?”

“Yes and no.” Yixing doesn’t know Minseok’s definition of _hard_ , so he explains both sides. “It was a relatively easy objective, and being mission control was boring but also overwhelming.” 

“Boring?” Minseok seems confused at this which worries Yixing.

“Yeah. I was just sitting idle for a lot of the time...” Is that wrong? _Was_ he supposed to be doing something?

“But you have the mission report. And the encrypting diagnostics.”

The what and the _what?_

Yixing’s heart drops. Shit, are these things he will have to make up? 

Before he can ask any frantic questions, Minseok laughs, elaborating. “I guess no one told you.” _Thank you._ Finally someone acknowledges his injustice! “The mission report is basically you typing up everything that happens the whole time, but with excruciating detail. And the diagnostics are how you talk to everything. It’s just a simple code you have to learn and then it’s how you and the technology communicate.”

“Yeah. I didn’t know...” Yixing’s voice is somewhere between agitation and fear. But Minseok actually seems to understand him. Perhaps he should try the whole I-have-been-told-nothing conversation. Perhaps he wouldn’t be scolded for his ‘lack of responsibility’ like Kyungsoo. God, he never wants to face Kyungsoo again. Nor Baekhyun. 

“Huh. Maybe Chanyeol did it, then.” Minseok muses. Yixing nods. It _would_ explain why the guy was never – excluding the Jongin rescue – a millisecond away from the keyboard. 

“Yeah... so–“ Before Yixing can ease some of the overbearing-to-the-point-where-he-wants-to-die stress, a shout echoes from down the hall.

_“SEOK!”_

Yixing steps closer to the wall in safety measures of the approaching cannonball. He spots Sehun at the other end of the hall, having that cold unimpressed look but Yixing’s pretty sure that’s just his face. Jongdae flies into Minseok’s arms, holding him in an embrace as if he hasn’t seen him in years or something. Yixing pretends to not see the butt-grab, but it’s pointless when Jongdae gives him a look and bursts out in laughter.

“Hey! Yixing, didn’t see you there!” He doesn’t let go of his boyfriend as he starts to walk. 

“I can tell.” Apparently, Yixing was too quiet because Jongdae doesn’t answer. And then the situation becomes _very_ awkward, because it’s just Jongdae’s butt-grabs and whispers and giggles as if Yixing is walking beside two homoerotic teenage girls.

So he decides to catch up to Sehun.

“Hi.” Yixing says, narrowing his eyes at the way Sehun looks him up and down. Hence, “What?”

“ _What_ what?” Sehun’s brows raise.

“Why did you look me up and down like that?” Yixing then regrets being this pugnacious in the first place because it just makes him sound petty, but he cannot go back in time – as far as he knows – so he’ll just continue his argument. 

“I didn’t.” 

“You did.”

“I didn’t.”

Yixing sighs. This isn’t worth letting the other two catch up, so he just begins on although he has no idea where he’s going. It isn’t very long before Sehun grabs his arm to pull him the other way at a crossing.

“How big _is_ this place?” Yixing asks after the third redirection. 

“Not very.” Sehun answers. He doesn’t go on to explain, though. A man of little expression _and_ little words. 

“Okay, but can you explain? I thought it was clear from my question, which by the intonation of _is_ suggested that I thought this place was very big and you’re contradicting that so I would want to know more.” 

Sehun gives him a calculating glance, a couple seconds of silence before elaborating. “Not huge but hallways look the same.” 

“You don't like talking much, do you?”

“What?” Sehun gives him another judgmental look. Or maybe that’s just his face. Yeah, that’s just his face. Yikes, wonder how many friends he made in high school.

“Never mind.” Yixing decides he’s just being an ass for no reason– correction: no justiciable reason. Yes, he’s tired and not in a good mood via prior events, but that’s no excuse to be rude to Sehun. Besides, once they turn a corner Yixing sees Chanyeol and Baekhyun going into the kitchen. They've arrived.

Sehun gives another dismissive grunt as they enter the room, which now looks a lot smaller. Black silverware make a stark contrast to the large marble table they’re on. Nine chairs line the sides, four on one and five on the other, yet the spaces are rather far apart, as if there is something (or someone) missing. The actual kitchen part is still as it was last time, only that the island now holds a buffet of all sorts of wonderful aromas Yixing cannot wait to get a mouth of. 

Baekhyun and Chanyeol are heading straight towards the food, and with Sehun following them, Yixing figures he should too. Looking to the table, he finds Jongin and Junmyeon sitting down, sharing an animated conversation. Jongin is the only one with a full plate. Minseok and Jongdae quickly file behind Sehun, obscuring Yixing’s vision of the two. Surprisingly enough, the room is on the mellower side. Are these the same people he had met in the old-tv room? 

Wait, what time is it? 

Ah, the 00:03:34EXT explains it. However, there must be no concept of fixed schedules here, because no person in this room seems the least bit put-off by the fact that they’re having dinner at three in the morning. But whatever, said dinner smells amazing.

Out of all the things in the universe that could go wrong, this food is certainly not one of them.

Yixing thanks Randomness as he grabs a black matte plate, scanning all of the choices. From simple japchae to some kind of entrée he can’t decipher, this place has prepared all of the delicacies of Korea in one table. Although Yixing’s only judging by the smell, he has a feeling it will be good. Probably because of the smell.

It only occurs to him how much space he has on his plate after getting the japchae, which fills up the entire thing and leaves him zero room for anything else. He goes to put it back, but then Jongdae’s yelling at him. Or maybe that’s just his voice.

“Yah! Don’t put that back, you nasty.”

Yixing’s hand stills with the tongs, slowly looking up to Jongdae in hopes that he’s joking, because the only thing the noodles have touched are his plate and the silverware. And who is _he_ to talk all hygienic? He is the one who decided licking Yixing was a good idea. Because of this, Yixing just continues his movement, putting about three-fourths of the stir-fry back so he can try the other things. The eye contact in these couple moments is intense.

Ultimately, his plate ends up with a mix of everything, because there are just so many choices and Yixing can’t discriminate against anything except for the deviled eggs which are the only thing he doesn’t get because he doesn’t like deviled eggs. This time, he strategizes to sit between Sehun and Minseok, two of the people who didn’t go on the mission. 

It’s not like there’s any awkward vibe right now, no. It’s just that there most likely _will_ be one once the topic of the mission and How Yixing’s First Mission Went comes up. He also has moved Kyungsoo to the bottom of his like list. Baekhyun was already there. But Baekhyun's under Kyungsoo because the words of _I’m newbie Yixing and I’ve been abducted onto this spaceship and_ oh-em-gee, _it’s terrible! I don’t know what’s going on and I sound like a robot and Baekhyun's a meanie and, ugh! I HATE my life!_ in that annoying voice with those annoying gestures have been stuck in his head for all the annoying time he's been awake. Chanyeol was impartial and Jongin was crying the whole time, so they remain somewhere in the middle. 

Speaking of Jongin, Yixing thinks as he looks to the guy, he seems completely fine. The only thing alluding to his gruesome wound is the fact that he looks like he gained a couple pounds, his t-shirt stretching to the bandage or whatever he has on. But other than that, Jongin looks as happy as can be, with that grin he always has on his face as he talks to Kyungsoo. 

Yixing’s probably-less-than-subtle watching is interrupted when someone occupies Sehun’s empty seat. Junmyeon’s smiling with his perfect face and all that, waving a hand across Yixing’s face. 

“Hi.” Yixing sits up straighter, diverting his attention. 

“Hey. How did it go?”

“The mission?” Yixing clarifies. 

“The mission.” 

“Right...” Considering how positively Junmyeon had reacted to Yixing’s complaint of Baekhyun, it is probable Yixing can vent all of the horrors of the mission out onto him to receive sympathy. However, he doesn’t think he can do that so discretely as to not have Kyungsoo or Baekhyun across the table hear something like _this guy is fucking unbelievable,_ so he decides he can let it all out on Junmyeon another time.

“Was it bad?” Junmyeon raises a worried brow, and Yixing realizes he’s been contemplating for a little too long.

“Yes.” He answers, finding a way to maneuver to a private conversation. “I would rather tell you about it another time.” He not-so-subtly glances around the table, the people. “As in, I’m going to tell you another time.” 

Junmyeon follows his gaze, then looking back to him. “Yes, of course. I got’cha.” His lips pull into a smirk as he shoots finger guns. Yixing would usually cringe, but for some reason it looks cute on Junmyeon, so he just stares until the other folds in on himself.

 _“Ah_... haha... not funny, sorry...” Junmyeon looks down and puts his hands together and tries to stop smiling, but it’s obvious he thinks he’s funny. When Yixing still says nothing, he seems to get very tense, turning his attention to Yixing’s steaming plate. “Hey, yeah, what’s this you’re eating? Oh, the dumplings? You probably–“

Yixing lets out a small laugh. It’s not like the situation is hilarious or anything; it’s rather an endearing laughter, like at a puppy who just ran into the wall, or an adorable guy embarrassing himself on this spaceship you got abducted onto. 

“What– _what?”_ Junmyeon repeats through Yixing’s chuckles, which only prolongs the laughter.

“You’re just funny.” He says once he calms, “Embarrassing yourself. Without any help, too. It’s cute.” By the way Junmyeon reddens and looks down, Yixing knits his brows, thinking over what he had just said and oh–

The C word! Cute!

He didn’t mean to. He has just been used to letting his inner dialogue slip out in this guy’s presence. And now Junmyeon is either A) choking on the noodle he had grabbed from Yixing’s plate or B) looking down abashedly from the comment because maybe he has never been called cute or something, but before Yixing an decide which, two hands grab onto the back to Junmyeon’s chair.

“This is my seat.” Sehun says, tipping the chair backwards so Junmyeon startles, scrambling out of the seat and supporting himself on the marble table. 

“Yah, _Sehun.”_ Junmyeon scolds while Sehun and Yixing try not to laugh. It only works for the latter. “Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” 

“Tip the chair on me!” 

“Why?”

“Because I could get hurt!”

“Why?” 

Junmyeon narrows his eyes before crossing his arms. “Seriously?”

When Sehun just smiles (and Yixing adjusts his imaginary glasses because did this kid just _smile?),_ Junmyeon scoffs, turning away. On the way back to his seat – in which he decides to go the long way – he pats Yixing on the head in either 1. A duck duck goose game he didn't know he was playing or 2. A nonverbal message he doesn't understand. He knows it's the second when the hand drags over his left shoulder casually as he passes. Maybe he was just being friendly, or maybe he really wanted to touch Yixing’s hair. Or maybe it’s some kind of bro-thing wherever he’s from.

Everyone is seated by now, all plates equally stuffed to the brim with the buffet– which, now that he glances back, looks like a tornado hit it. Among the plates, the foods are distributed pretty evenly except for Baekhyun who has a separate plate full of _just_ deviled eggs and Yixing himself who took all the dumplings (what? No one else did!).

The food is as great as it smells. Yixing really wants to know how it’s made and how he can manipulate the system to give him this every meal instead of the shitty packaged space-food, because that’s just how great the taste is. Every delicacy pops with its own distinguished flavor, different but coordinating tastes melting in his mouth in such a way that Yixing finally, _finally_ understands the appeal of food porn. It seems everyone else is enjoying the food as well, considering the peace among the setting.

In fact, Yixing would call this _civilized._

Contrary to the apeshit catastrophe of flying food and table shields and screams Yixing had fearfully anticipated, all the guys are sitting calmly, eating whilst having semi-lively discussion. Of course, said discussion is what to expect of a group of teenage dudes (“You think Olympic gold medalist gymnasts can suck their own dicks?” “I don’t know, how about you try it.” “I wanna see this, no homo though.”), but no one is screaming and no one is out of their seat and no one is barraging Yixing the newbie so he is content.

“Hey, Yixing, how was your _first mission~?”_

He spoke (inner third-person dialogue, duh) too soon. 

Yixing looks up to Jongdae, swallowing his bite before speaking carefully. “Worse than I expected.” 

He can feel all eyes on him (and his bracelet, of course) as Jongdae follows up with, “Aww, why?” 

“Long story.” Yixing dismisses, delving into some rice to signify that he’s done talking. A bit of silence ensues and he begins to feel _very_ awkward. Are they going to force him to talk?

Then, 

“That’s what she said.”

“Or _he_. Be inclusive, you homophobic fuck.”

“Not this again! You can’t be homophobic if you’re gay!”

“Yes you can.”

“That wasn’t a question, Sehun.”

“Wait, if people are homo _phobic_ why do they _hate_ gay people? Shouldn’t they be _afraid_ of them?”

“They should change the suffix to–“ 

“Wow, so quirky and insightful. Where’d you get that? Twitter?” 

“No, I’m actually wondering!”

“Baekhyun, you get your whole _personality_ from Twitter.”

“No. Twitter bitches _wish_ they could be like me.”

“Hey, no swearing at the dinner table!” 

“Sorry. Wait, no–”

_“– Sorry naega naega pajyeo pajyeo pajyeo beolyeo baby~”_

“Someone pass the ketchup.” 

“What in the world are you having _ketchup_ on?” 

“None of your business.” 

“I am a cook, it is my business.”

“Kyungsoo taught you how to make _soup._ ”

“And?” 

_And_ this is the part where Yixing presses the play button in his brain and all of the outside noise turns into one fuzz. It’s a gift, quite frankly.

However, his mind, though far way, is still on the people. It’s just now, at a casual dinner, dawning upon him that _these_ are the eight people he will have to be with for the next who-knows-how-long. It could be years, like Junmyeon! It is exhausting, having to socialize with strangers in a context where everyone is best friends. It's even worse when some of them have become less of strangers and more of People That Dislike You.

 _I’m newbie Yixing and I’ve been abducted onto this spaceship and_ oh-em-gee, _it’s terrible! I don’t know what’s going on and I sound like a robot and Baekhyun's a meanie and, ugh! I HATE my life!_

God, Yixing just can't get that out of his head. The worst part about it is that it's _true._ It's true Yixing hates this place and doesn't know what's going on and absolutely despises Baekhyun; even more so when the guy said this in such a voice and such a manner that suggested Yixing's childish. That his suffering is invalid and he's just pathetic. It baffles him how much of an asshole Baekhyun is when he hadn't even done anything. 

The other people aren't as bad though. Eventually, Yixing reminds himself, it will all become easier. Eventually he won’t dread seeing another face as much and won’t be as exhausted at the end of the day. Someday Yixing will be close to everyone here as well, and maybe he’ll even involve himself in the brain-deaded conversation. Although the unsolidified time – _someday_ – is terrifying and something Yixing really really really doesn’t want to accept, it does have its positives. It means that despite his current animosity with some of the people right now, it will eventually resolve itself (–or get worse and worse to the point of murder, but generally peaceful Yixing doubts that will happen). Maybe as soon as the next time there is a dinner he won’t have to carefully choose his seat and avoid Kyungsoo’s eyes at all times. 

Speaking of Kyungsoo. “Here, Chanyeol, try this.” Somehow, Yixing catches the whisper. The doe-eyed boy maneuvers a pastry onto the plate next to him. Chanyeol’s eyes light up as he takes a bite, smiling wide but then putting a hand over his mouth sheepishly. Kyungsoo giggles, handing him a napkin. It all looks oddly pure.

“Hey, Kyungsoo,” Baekhyun interrupts the moment. “Can I try one too?”

“No.” 

“Why?” Baekhyun pouts, eyeing the treat. (Chanyeol, by the way. Not the actual pastry).

“Because I only have so many.” 

Baekhyun crosses his arms. “That’s favoritism.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Hyung,” Jongin interjects, “can I have one?” 

“Sure.”

“WOAH WOAH WOAH!”

The short respite from any kind of arguing ends, and Yixing once again tunes out. That’s right, Baekhyun’s crush on Chanyeol. Wasn’t he supposed to ask the guy out, tonight, too? Before or after dinner? By the way they’re – barely – interacting, Yixing would guess after. Or maybe it was before and Baekhyun got harshly denied. He’ll have to ask. But he knows one thing for sure: either way, he’s going to make fun of him and have him suffer the embarrassment Yixing has because that’s the only way to serve justice and restore balance. 

Oh yeah, and Kyungsoo likes Chanyeol too, apparently. And Minseok and Jongdae are dating. What if this whole thing is just The Bachelor except on a spaceship and a bunch of Korean dudes and Yixing was sent here by mistake? It would explain the nine people. And him being the only Chinese. Or perhaps it’s a test for him to be surrounded by love and have him realize that he’s supposed to have a significant other so despite his fortuitous mindset he slowly abrades until he’s nothing but a black soul full of despair and no meaning? Sad, but... would he get to go home after? 

No, that is all completely unrealistic. Yixing is here to simply train his powers and save the universe. 

Not long after Yixing’s attempt at paying attention again (“We need change and we need it now!” “Bro, that was good. Run for president.” “I already am a president. Of alien colony 22415. But RF is boring so I call it _Kaitopia.”_ “Oh yeah, I remember that!” _),_ he finishes his plate. Only then, when there is nothing remaining but a black food-stained dish, Yixing feels the full weight of what he had just ate. _Literally._ Maybe three plates worth of japchae and two medium rice bowls and chicken and noodles and egg drop soup and a small plate full of dumplings and about five refills of water was a little too much. Maybe he should’ve heeded the looks Minseok kept giving him when he got up for seconds, thirds, fourths. 

Adjusting in his seat, Yixing’s stomach literally hurts from how stretched it is. He can _see_ the bloating. He hasn’t eaten this much since a couple years ago at the renovated _Kwong Hyun-Sik Grill and Bar_ where he tried all of the new specials until he threw up. Yixing really hopes he won’t throw up. He doesn’t feel like he will, though. In fact, he feels content. This is totally worth it. 

Yixing’s attention is caught by Chanyeol’s voice (now and like almost every other time too; the guy is really an outlier): “What if we watched a movie?”

“Oh! Great idea! Team bonding with the _newbie!”_ Yixing looks innocently to Jongdae, who grins and waves. 

A movie? That sounds actually kind of nice, a break from everything here to indulge in an Earth activity that’s not shitting or showering, but do they _have_ movies here? Oh, wait. Are they talking _movies_ or _EXO branded propaganda that brainwashes everyone with some weird radio wave technology_? 

“What movie, though?” Junmyeon elicits shouts from all corners of the table. 

_“Titanic!”_

_“Train To Busan!”_

_“The Handmaiden!”_

_“Love 911”_

_“Harry Potter!”_

_“Parasite!”_

And Yixing’s question is answered. However, he has a new one. Which movie? He wants something lighthearted, because he doesn’t know how much more chaos and emotion he can take.

“Let’s take a vote.” Receives nods and consents. Love 911 is a light rom-com. He’ll vote for that, and probably win considering almost everyone shouted individual ideas. 

“All for Titanic... Train To Busan... The Handmaiden... Love 911...” Yixing raises his hand slightly, “Harry Potter...”

“Alright. Titanic it is!”

Or maybe not. On second thought, is movie night optional?

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Shockingly enough, the old TV actually plays movies _too,_ along with video games. 

And even more shockingly, out of all the technology Yixing has been amazed to see, it is that huge hunk of outdated wires and pixels that is the only television available. Upon entering the TV’s room Yixing learns 1) this college-dorm reminiscent space is actually called the _recreation (rec_ for short) room: “Full of things us humans had back on Earth for when we feel homesick.” Junmyeon explained it. “They did a good job for robots, to be honest. Oh, and the technology can’t come in here, so we have to clean it ourselves.” And 2) in the rec room there is a closet with a whole sofa stuffed inside. Everyone struggling to carry it out is the best teamwork Yixing has seen so far.

Unfortunately, the couch only fits five people. This means that there is an unspoken race for spots, resulting in Yixing getting shoved into Chanyeol and then the wall and a loud scream emitting from _someone_ that almost blows out his eardrums. By the time Yixing reorients, the couch is taken by Baekhyun, Jongdae, Kyungsoo, and Jongin who is trying to shove Sehun off the clearly available fifth space. He rubs his head.

“Sorry about that.” Junmyeon’s hand is on his shoulder. “The couch space always makes everyone very... excitable.” 

“Seems everything here makes everyone excitable.” Yixing mutters as he lets the chuckling Junmyeon lead him to the space in front of the couch. Because the cushions are extended, they can sit comfortably against the sofa instead of anyone’s legs. Yixing gladly takes the edge spot, letting Junmyeon separate him from everyone else. 

“Someone load the VCR.” Kyungsoo says, but Yixing is not sure because did he just say... _VCR?_

“No, you.”

“Sorry, my hands are broken.”

“My dog died.”

“My grandma died.” 

“Fuck you all. I’ll do it.” Minseok sighs as he crawls to the television, digging around the shelves to pull out a VHS tape. Yixing squints, partially because he can’t read the name clearly and partially because he’s astonished this place carries Titanic VHS edition. 

“I think the robots who made this mixed up the generation’s trends a little.” Junmyeon must have seen the look on Yixing’s face.

“That makes sense... but couldn’t we watch this on another monitor? Like, a big one?”

“Eh, we could,” Then why aren’t they?! “but it would devalue the whole experience. Plus, it’s pretty homey in here. You can’t deny that.”

Yixing really can’t. Despite the catastrophic state of the room, it is oddly comforting; the only place he feels like a _normal_ _person_ in. This rec room is the only room Yixing has seen with any actual character; something habitable. The soothing yellow light from the prosthetic window makes it seem like sunset on Earth is always leaking in through the shades. It makes Junmyeon look pretty. 

Like, really pretty. 

“I can’t...” Yixing admits. “Is that why you all spend so much time in here?”

“Exactly.” Junmyeon smiles. “It’s, although messy, one of the only authentic pieces of Earth we have left. Even the peanut butter is real.” 

“Have you opened it?” 

“I did two years ago. I won’t ever again.”

As Yixing’s laughing, he feels something nudge his head. He looks back to see Jongin and Sehun, who are both focused on the TV. They have also seemed to settle for squeezing a foot of just space between them, no matter how uncomfortable their positions look. Yixing really doesn’t get their aversion.

He looks back to the TV, which now shows the movie being rewound. Yixing then wonders, how many times have they watched this movie? How many movie choices _are_ there? Are there books, too? Comics? Looking around the room, he sees a couple tattered unknown titles and an open face-down copy of Naruto 5 on a drawer, but nothing very substantial. 

Suddenly, his head is touched again.

Yixing looks back for the second time, in which Jongin is yell-talking to Kyungsoo and Sehun is looking forward at the screen, expression blank. The first time Yixing excused as an accident, but this one was much harder. On purpose. He turns back around, preparing to look at any moment as he tunes into Junmyeon and Chanyeol’s conversation.

When he’s nudged again, Yixing turns quickly.

Unfortunately for Sehun, the small smirk playing at his lips gives it all away. Yixing frowns, staring at the socked foot and then up to the boy. “Stop.”

Sehun looks to him. “Stop what?” 

“Kicking me.”

“I’m not.” 

“You are.”

Yixing turns back around, figuring that Sehun has gotten his kick (literally) out of it and will stop. And if not, he’ll just ignore it. He’ll see if the _acknowledging bad behavior only encourages it_ works on this kid as well. Besides, the movie is starting soon. 

Yet, when Minseok has rewound all the way to the title sequence and pressed play and turned up the volume and gotten up and closed the curtain (so now the room is a pitch black other than the light the TV provides) and gone back to his seat, Sehun is _still_ kicking him. 

Okay, so maybe it doesn’t work. The next time he does it, Yixing whips around like a predator, grabbing Sehun’s foot and tickling it. Sehun immediately laughs, kicking so his foot quickly goes loose from Yixing’s grip, but not without his whole sock.

“Yixing, the hell are you doing?” Kyungsoo is glaring daggers. It’s kind of menacing. No, _really_ menacing. Damnit, and he had avoided his scorn all up until now! 

Yixing gestures to Sehun. “He was–“

“He’s tickling me for no reason.” Sehun whines.

Yixing gapes. What a child! _“No,_ he was–“ 

“Okay, well stop.” Kyungsoo reprimands. “People are trying to watch the movie.”

Yixing opens his mouth to protest, but decides it’s not worth it. Especially since he’s still scared of Kyungsoo and any protesting will just add to the dislike the guy already has for him. Out of spite, Yixing crumples the sock into a ball and chucks it at Sehun.

However, Sehun catches it and throws it even harder back, and Yixing gets a face full of Sehun Foot Stench. 

Yixing quickly peels the sock off of his nose, tossing it to the darkness of the room and wiping his sleeves on his face as if it will help. How has no one seen his injustice?! He thinks in agony, but then realizes he can barely even see Sehun, much less Chanyeol at the opposite side of the sofa. 

He sighs, warily leaning back (to which Sehun doesn’t stop... and now has toes to grip his hair with...) and tries to focus on the movie. This is the part where Jack boards the Titanic, AKA the beginning. And then he meets Rose and fancy people and then they have a dandy time and then the ship crashes and they all die except for Rose. Or something like that. Yixing hasn’t watched this movie in _years._

Eventually, though, Sehun stops. And eventually, Yixing actually invests in the movie. For real. His inner reactions are amplified by Jongdae’s dramatic gasps, Jongin’s _hey look a doggie!,_ and Baekhyun’s _oh my god sis, don’t do that!_ every other scene Rose interacts with Jack. Where the longest time Yixing has ever focused on one thing is interrupted is when the two main characters have just had sex, and now it’s that romantic post-sex scene where they lay in each other’s arms. When Rose leans her head on Jack’s shoulder, Yixing can practically feel it.

Because he does.

Side-eyeing (because he can’t move his head anymore) to the left, he sees Junmyeon’s fluff of jet-black hair. A slight smile involuntarily spreads his lips, enabling Yixing to relish in this warm feeling for a moment before he focuses his attention back to the movie. It’s five seconds and then he realizes he’s _really_ having trouble focusing his attention back to the movie. Instead, Junmyeon and that warm feeling intrude his thoughts.

Yixing looks back, trying to figure out what the problem is. In most cases, this would just be a bro-thing and Yixing would be perfectly fine and watch the rest of the movie with the guy’s head on his lap for all he cares, but for some reason it really doesn’t feel like a bro-thing and if Junmyeon’s head was on his lap he thinks he would panic because he can’t immediately think of what he would do. This is different, this is new. And it has to do with the genuine, smart, and absolutely gorgeous Junmyeon leaning his head on his shoulder...

_Ohhhhhhh._

And that’s when he realizes: _fuck,_ he maybe kind of sort of partially somewhat... _likes_ this guy? Oh no. A _crush?!_

It’s not that Yixing hasn’t had a crush before. He has. And he can quickly reason himself out of them with one deal-breaker negative of the person, and then the euphorically nervous feeling he’d get around them would slowly fade into nothingness. However, he can’t think of anything bad about Junmyeon, and it’s been years since he has had a crush and for some reason this one feels very strong and fuck, this is _really_ not the time to be getting feelings for somebody when he’s currently adjusting to life on a spaceship. God dammit, Randomness!

To worsen it, Yixing’s mind betrays him. It starts at _So what do I do about this crush?,_ and then goes to _What’s his sexuality?_ and _What if I held his hand right now?_ and then completely runs off. Yixing wants to reason out what to do but instead he’s thinking of what to not do and what to not think of and how would Junmyeon treat him as a boyfriend? What would Junmyeon’s lips feel like on his? Can he be his first kiss? Is he supposed to wear breath spray for that? What flavor does Junmyeon like? Is Junmyeon a virgin? Would Junmyeon or he top? Is it dick-size or height that determines that? Is knowing fellatio an unknown rule for relationships involving a male and should he learn? What would Junmyeon’s lips feel like on his– 

_Oh my god!_

Yixing snaps out of it, blinking harshly as he looks back to the TV. It’s suddenly very hot in here. He pushes his hair back, taking a deep breath. He can literally _feel_ the heat radiating off of his face. He really wishes he could be submerged in hypothermic water like the people on screen, right now. Yet Junmyeon is still there, on his shoulder, as peaceful as ever despite Yixing’s panic. If Junmyeon simply leaning on him has him like this, then Yixing’s royally fucked.

Or maybe not. Yixing definitely knows he has some sort of crush on Junmyeon, but maybe the reason for the Intrusive Teenage Boy Thoughts and why he’s already burning up isn’t because he likes him _that_ much but rather because his testosterone is most likely at its peak due to the stress accumulation and the adamant Refusal To Masturbate In The Showers Because What If Jongin Shows Up Again. 

But no matter whose fault it is, Yixing really needs to cool down. 

Although he regrets it right after, Yixing cups his hand under the sleeping Junmyeon’s cheek, slowly maneuvering his head so he’s leant back against the couch. Luckily, Yixing right at the edge so all he has to do is get up and walk behind everybody. He remains undetected through his exit, which isn’t that surprising considering half of the guys are sleeping and the other half are so invested in the movie their eyes are starting to water not from crying but looking at the screen far too hard. He also notes to ask Sehun why he’s asleep on Jongin’s shoulder, and then tease him for it. 

Yixing remembers that from this room, the bathroom is down the hall and then to the left and then to the right. There isn’t a men’s or women’s, but rather just **_BATHROOM_** and then the assortment of numbers after. Probably because there seems to be only one gender on this spaceship. Why is that? Why aren’t there women? Having women would make this all much more practical. Women don’t get like this from someone literally just _leaning on their shoulder._

Yixing enters the dimly lit room, waiting until the door shuts behind him to progress to the sinks. He leans his palms on the counter, sighing deeply as he looks up at the mirror. If exhausted was a person, it would be him. The month he has been here has implemented dark circles under his eyes, because no matter how much sleep he gets he is still tired. And when he tries to sleep all day to solve this then he just becomes restless, stressed, and frustrated. His hair is relatively neat, as he finally found the gel and has begun to use it to keep his hair out of his face (also, _how_ are haircuts done here?), only disheveled where Sehun had been messing with it. He looks pale, but that’s probably just from the light, because he has just eaten what feels like an elephant. He can see his stomach pushing out against his t-shirt. But nonetheless, at least it's his own suffering and dismay rather than Junmyeon filling his thoughts. 

“Fuck...” He mutters as he leans down into the sink, cupping his hands to drench his face in cold water. It feels so refreshing that he lets it trickle down his neck and chest. He pumps out some towels, drying himself before depositing them in the trash burner. He watches the process because fuck everyone else, it's interesting.

As the wet paper towels are being obliterated to particles, Yixing hears the door open behind him. He stands back up, turning to see Kyungsoo, who he least expected. (Seriously. He is last on his list).

Kyungsoo doesn’t come further, however, but rather pauses and just stares at Yixing. It’s strange, because despite Kyungsoo’s flowery appearance with his big eyes and fluffy hair and tiny height and squishy build, he genuinely intimidates Yixing.

“What?” Yixing asks. “Why are you in here?” If he’s not taking a shower or washing his hands, then Kyungsoo must be taking one weird detour to the anti-grav toilets.

“Are you okay?” Despite the question, Kyungsoo doesn’t sound very caring; rather monotone.

“Yes.” Yixing takes a sharp breath when he thinks he hears a beep, but nothing happens. 

When Kyungsoo doesn't say any more, Yixing makes to leave, but his way is blocked. When Yixing sidesteps to the left, Kyungsoo goes that way as well.

“... What–“

“I’m sorry, Yixing.” Kyungsoo blurts at once, as if the last tense thirty seconds had been him trying to spit it out. 

Again, “What?” Why would he be apologizing? It was just a question.

“I know... on the mission I was a real asshole.” Oh! That’s right! He was a real asshole! “I was stressed because usually easy missions like that don’t have us getting hurt– or _that_ hurt, at least, so I was really worried for Jongin and so I just... took it out on you...” 

The word tapers into silence. Kyungsoo seems genuine, especially from how he keeps forcing himself to look up at Yixing instead of the floor. The apology is nice, a good start. But, following his philosophy, Yixing can’t forgive him until Kyungsoo suffers the same he had. It’s only justice.

“Okay.” He says.

Apparently, this meant to go on. “I know I’m quiet, but I’m not usually like that: rude, I swear... shit, I feel really bad. I wasn’t thinking about how you were feeling. I get it, the adjustment is so hard. I was exaggerating. You’re not supposed to go learn it all by yourself. We need to help you...”

Oh. Wow. Kyungsoo basically checked a good five items off of his list of worries. Yixing feels the slightest of remorse for the guy, who now has given up trying to make eye contact. 

“I’m sorry...” He repeats, and Yixing realizes that maybe his lack of response is just making him feel worse. Oops.

“It’s kind of okay.” Yixing doesn’t want to lie. Kyungsoo looks back up to him, so he elaborates. 

“I...” 

Okay, so maybe he doesn’t elaborate.

“It’s fine, I get it. It hurt and the apology is nice and all but it doesn’t completely excuse everything.” Kyungsoo says. Yixing nods slightly, because that’s the closest to the truth he can get without sounding like a complete dick. 

“Can... can I give you a hug?” Kyungsoo asks. Yixing’s brows raise. 

“I feel really bad.”

So maybe Yixing is wrong about Kyungsoo. Maybe this guy has a bigger heart than he lets on, and maybe his guilt alone has caused him to suffer enough to balance the equation. Or maybe he’s just a really good actor, but now’s not the time to ask about his theatre experience.

“Yeah.” Yixing answers, granting two arms to delicately wrap themselves around his torso. A moment later, Yixing lifts his own arms out of their awkward position to return the hug. He doesn’t remember the last time he genuinely hugged someone (excluding now). Maybe Namjoon, about a year ago when he came back from this mathematics program? He had forgotten how nice hugs feel. 

What would it be like to hug Junmyeon? Would his arms be warm? Would his hands press at the small of his back, or would they slide down to his–

God dammit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear the conversation that goes on is not an accurate representation of my intelligence what so ever.
> 
> The last statement may be a lie.
> 
> Thank you for reading~ <3


	16. Minseok's Sadist Regime - Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing is woken up again but it's not for the dinner.

**YIXING DECIDES** his third least-worst wake up is right now, because although the pair of eyes looming over him are rather startling, there is no screaming in his ear nor seizing of limbs nor sudden excruciating pain. So it ranks pretty high.

When he squints, the feline eyes above him widen, immediately sliding out of his vision. Yixing blinks the sleep out of his eyes, fighting the weight of a half-finished rest as he props himself up on an elbow and looks over the edge of his bed to where Minseok stands. The guy lifts a hand up, giving a wave although Yixing clearly knows he’s right there.

Wait a second, this already happened!

Yixing’s eyes widen. He _swears_ this has already happened. Right! Because he had went to the dinner and stuffed himself and then watched _Titanic_ and then realized his crush on Junmyeon and then escaped to the bathroom where Kyungsoo then apologized for being an asshole on the mission! Is this time travel? To be honest, he wouldn’t be _that_ surprised anymore, but still terrified. There’s probably so much he doesn’t know and that’s scary. 

Wait, let’s not jump to conclusions. That’s not like Yixing. 

Minseok speaks conveniently after the internal freak-out. “Hi... it’s almost–“ 

_“Dinner?!_ Holy shit, did I time travel?!” 

Yixing then realizes two things. 1) He must have _also_ turned into an alien because Minseok is looking at him like he’s an alien, and 2) The first statement is wrong and Minseok is just looking at him like he’s stupid because he _is_ stupid because he’s now looking at his bracelet which says _13:34:22EXT._

“What? _Time travel?”_ Minseok raises a worried brow, because time travel is definitely unfathomable compared to space-heros meant to save the universe. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Yixing answers after a moment of staring at the mattress – that has suddenly become super uncomfortable – and contemplating his foolishness. It’s all these damn negative emotions. And testosterone. Not his fault.

“Why did you wake me up like that?” He asks as he climbs down from the bunk. Despite his fatigue, he knows the bed isn’t going to let him go back to sleep since it already solidified. Besides, Kyungsoo was right. He really _should_ be trying to get himself together, despite the injustice of the whole situation in the first place. Besides, it'll probably make him feel better.

“Because tapping you would be weird.” Minseok makes a distasteful expression. Now that Yixing notices, he has rather athletic clothes on, sporting (hah) sweatpants and sneakers and a muscle tee. He has very muscular arms for such a small frame. Is he a weightlifter?

“Why?”

A shrug, “Just is.” Yixing disagrees, but okay. “Anyway, I woke you up because I wanted to start with you on combat training.”

A dreadful chill runs down Yixing’s spine. _Combat training._ It has the two things he has been trying his hardest to avoid: combat and training. On second thought, maybe Kyungsoo was wrong. Maybe Yixing should just go back to sleep until he’s utterly useless to EXO and then gets discarded via a hopefully quick death. 

But who is he kidding? He won’t be able to do that. Yixing can’t lie to himself: he is not able to overpower anything here. Justice will never be attainable. He suddenly has a new kind of empathy for slavery.

“What does that include?” Yixing asks as he opens the drawer under the bed, taking out a pair of nikes, the only clothing that isn’t branded with a hexagonal EXO logo. After tying, he tucks the too-long laces into the sides of his shoe, then kneeling back down to the drawer to grab something more fitting than a hoodie. 

“I guess we can start with simple sparring techniques... emergency situation strategies... and also strength and endurance stuff. You need to be... athletic.” This makes Yixing redden because Minseok says this _just_ as he takes off his hoodie to get into a t-shirt. Way to be obvious.

“Why do I have to be athletic– wait, no, I know why.” Yixing saves himself from the _well, what if you’re in a blah blah blah and blah blah blah happens_ talk. “I meant, do I have to be as muscular and fit as you someday?”

Minseok explains as they exit and head towards the training room. Yixing vaguely recognizes the correct directions, too! An oval shape starts to form in his head. “Well, ideally, yes. But no need to sweat being like _me._ I was athletic before I came here, so I had a way better start. It really depends on the progress, which is tracked by your bracelet and RF. Otherwise, you just need to run fast and be fit enough to defend yourself in all sorts of situations.”

“Alright.” Yixing purposely looks away when Minseok types in the passcode for the gymnasium. If he doesn’t know it, then he has an excuse for not going into there on his own account and therefore won’t be lying when he says _I didn’t know the passcode so, tragically, I could not go get a nine-pack._

This time, there is only one other person in the room. Yixing spots Jongin’s figure a little ways away at one of the machines, slowly pushing a bar with his legs. He smiles widely, waving both of his arms and shouting.

“Hi Seokkie! Hi Yixing!” His face then contorts in pain and he stops waving, looking down at his chest. 

“Hey!” Minseok calls back, leaving Yixing to just wave and wonder what the hell is going through Jongin’s head deciding to exercise injured. Minseok leads him to a bleacher-bench that looks the same as the ones back at his high school. On it is an off-white sweat rag, ice pack, and two EXO-branded water bottles. 

“I kind of prepared.” He explains, sitting down. He folds his hands on his lap, sharp eyes flickering up to meet Yixing’s.

“Okay, I’m going to be honest: you don’t seem like the athletic type. Am I correct?”

“I played little league T-ball in second grade?” Yixing offers, getting a laugh. 

“Doesn’t count. Everyone did that.” Minseok gets back up, walking over to the padded sparring area. There is a mirrored wall, making it look like there are four arenas instead of two. “We’ll start here with stretching. I’ll run you through a basic routine.” 

Promptly, Minseok drops into a split. Despite his muscular legs, he makes it look easy; as if he’s a rag doll. Yixing’s eyes widen, jaw dropping slightly. After this, will his thighs still be intact to accept an apology?

“Just kidding,” Minseok laughs, “you don’t have to do a split or anything. I just wanted to see the look on your face.”

“Oh.” 

Minseok then brings Yixing through a series of stretches he’s seen on yoga commercials. The put-one-leg-out-and-reach-toward-it thing he can’t do, the sit-with-feet-soles-touching-and-bring-your-knees-to-the-floor thing he can’t do, and all of the other stretches-he-can’t-do things he can’t do. But it’s not that bad. Yixing already knows he’s pathetic when it comes to the athletic department. He does feel a bit better though when Minseok shares his gymnast experience. He used to compete before was abducted at seventeen.

“I think I’m going to train you routinely.” Minseok notes while bringing him through dynamics, which is basically stretching but in the form of movements. “So you better be prepared for sweat and tears. Not blood though. I can’t stand blood.” He visibly shudders.

 _Sweat and tears, lovely._ Yixing thinks because he can’t say it out loud. At least there is no blood– or, perhaps, he could procure some kool-aid to dab on himself whenever he wants to get out of Minseok’s grasp...?

“Also, take off your shirt.” 

“What?” Yixing’s caught off guard. “Why?” He doesn’t really want to take off his shirt. 

“Because you’re training with me and it’s part of my curriculum.” Minseok answers coldly, as if he's annoyed that someone would question why he's commanding they strip.

“Why?” Showing the whole top-half of his less than healthy body isn’t exactly one of his priorities. Besides, aren’t people these ages supposed to be way-too-sympathetic for things like this? 

“Yixing.” Minseok’s brows quirk. His gentle voice contrasts with the inquisitive glare. “Are you... _insecure of your body_ , or something?”

Yixing opens his mouth, face faltering. The way Minseok said it, _insecure of your body;_ he could have easily said _have a foot fetish._ As if it’s something weird, frowned upon. But isn’t _everyone_ insecure of their body these days?! And it’s not that Yixing is insecure of his body or anything, it’s just that... 

That... 

Okay, so maybe he is. So maybe looking like he does in contrast to the literal _models_ here is a little bit humiliating, and maybe it does bother him more than he’d like to admit, and maybe that even further bothers him because it makes him sound pathetic like _I’m newbie Yixing and I’ve been abducted onto this spaceship and_ oh-em-gee, _it’s terrible! I don’t know what’s going on and I sound like a robot and Baekhyun's a meanie and, ugh! I HATE my life!_ Maybe it’s because he feels so inadequate in so many ways that he doesn’t want to accept another one. He doesn’t try to stay fit, and has been fine with the consequences his whole life, but now... here...

 _"Obviously.”_ Yixing answers somewhere between vexation and shame. 

“Oh, that’s great!” Minseok chirps like a happy teacher. 

Yixing narrows his eyes at the guy’s grin. “What? Why would that be–“

“Motivation!” Minseok points a hand at him, gesturing at his shirt and flicking his hand up. “Now, off with it.”

Yixing has the choice to either make this much more difficult than it has to be, or just take off his damn shirt. He decides the latter, because being petty will just get him frowned upon even more. _It’s okay, I’m smarter than all of them anyways_ is the sole thread of advantage he has left. Yixing tosses the article to the side, watching Minseok’s eyes travel down his body. Only now he notices how cold it is. 

“... Not _that_ bad. We can work with it.” Minseok says, grabbing Yixing’s shoulders and spinning him so he’s facing the mirror. 

“Take a good look, because you won’t be like this for much longer.” 

Suddenly, Yixing sees himself with different eyes. 

How has he not noticed before? He’s too pasty, so his ribs look like fish scales. He’s disproportional, his torso way too wide in comparison to his arms. His arms are too skinny, like they’ll break. His shoulders hunch too much. He has no muscle. Has the acne on his back returned? It certainly has on his cheeks. Why _does_ his face look like that? 

Oh god, this feels _horrible_. Is this what people think of themselves daily? 

“I’ve had nineteen years to look at myself.” Yixing harshly shrugs him off, turning back around. He has to admit, though, the prospect of getting a body like Minseok’s does excite him. Before, it wouldn’t. But now, it’s standard, he’s in a new world, and he has the opportunity; perhaps a little hard work for a little bit of a better figure won’t be so bad. It’s not like it’s pointless. All humans are capable of athletic development. 

Minseok narrows his eyes. “Alright, no need to be rude. In fact, if you’re only nineteen, you should be calling me _Hyung.”_

Yixing turns back around as if it’ll help. He doesn’t look at himself, though, but at Minseok through the mirror. “Alright. Sorry.” 

“Sorry _Hyung.”_

He bites his lip in a moment of stubbornness before repeating, “Sorry _Hyung.”_

“There!” Minseok’s scary demeanor suddenly disappears, a grin spreading his face (which, in all honesty, is even scarier). “Okay, so we’re going to start with...” 

So perhaps this, Yixing thinks, is how Minseok and Jongdae are compatible. Although Minseok’s a chill guy, he’s not as chill as Yixing thought and has a demanding side. It’s such a huge contrast it’s unnerving, but it explains how he’s able to handle a relationship with the boisterous Jongdae. And maybe, based on observance from these last few minutes, Minseok's also some sort of sadist. Yixing's not missing the patronizing smirks; a hint of satisfaction at his discontent. No– Minseok's training him purely to help him, not to make him suffer... right?

“–So did you catch all that?”

Oh. Nope. 

“Know what? Maybe you’re more of a hands-on learner.” Minseok decides and Yixing is suddenly tossed two large foam gloves and a helmet. “Put those on, and take off your shoes.”

“Oh, we’re sparring now...” It’s not a question, because clearly they are fighting if he is putting on the equipment. But even so, why are they _sparring?_ Is he going to be doing hand to hand combat with the aliens? Yixing doesn't bother to ask and just slides on his gloves, but then realizes that renders him unable to put on the helmet so then he has to remove his gloves to put on the helmet and then re-put on the gloves. This takes at least a minute.

“You know, in a dojo you’re expected to have all of that plus foot padding on within fifteen seconds.” Minseok comments. 

“We’re not in a dojo.” Yixing replies, but then wonders, “Did you do martial arts, too?” 

“Before this, no. A... friend told me that. Also, you _still_ forgot your shoes.” Minseok says when Yixing looks up at him, ready but not actually ready. 

When he’s actually ready, then, Minseok leads him to the center part of the mats. “Alright, so a basic defensive stance is like this.” The only thing looking out of the ordinary is how his hands are up in fists. “Your hands are always ready to hit or block something, and your feet always need to be ready to move quickly, or break in a sprint, in some cases. The stance basically prepares you for anything.”

“Okay.” Yixing doesn’t think it would prepare him for a meteor to the face, but he knows that’s not the ‘anything’ Minseok is talking about. He mimics him, putting his hands up. He feels rather volatile on the balls of his feet, but figures the balance is something that will come 

And then Minseok punches him. 

It’s not that hard, but it’s straight in the face, so he’s knocked off balance as he falls back onto his butt. He blinks harshly, looking up to a disapproving Minseok. His hands are placed on his hips as he shakes his head.

 _“Tsk..._ this might be a little harder than I thought.”

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

To Yixing’s (and probably Minseok’s, too) surprise, he actually improves within the two hours. Of course, he gets bored as hell when ten minutes passes and Minseok is still hitting him mercilessly, but he eventually adapts. For one, he realizes that he is depending too much weight on the balls of his feet where he’s unbalanced. Once he fixes this, the whole falling-down problem is solved and then only falls when he wants a break (“Seriously? I didn’t even hit you that hard?” “No. I just wanted a break.” “No breaks! Up! Do that again and I'll kick you!”), he can focus on the actual fighting part too. 

Minseok gives him tips along the way.

“Don’t always use your right.” Minseok says after a strained right arm used to block a hit to his left. “Just because you’re right handed doesn’t mean your right will do it better than your left. Do whatever’s closest, because it’ll get there fastest.”

With that philosophy, which hand is he supposed to jerk off with?

“Unless they have a long ranged weapon or arm or something, always try to keep distance between you and your opponent, so they can’t just reach out and–“

“OW!”

“All humans and most space creatures you'll fight this way have their center of gravity at their chest or waist. This is what you look at if you want to hit them, because it’s where they will move the slowest...”

“That was my shoulder, Yixing.”

But Minseok, despite the genuinely authentic teaching, is also a very brutal coach. The fight is continuous, mostly him throwing punches and kicks that get harder and faster by the count, but Yixing does attempt a few offensive moves. He stops attempting though when Minseok catches his arm and literally _flips_ him over his shoulder. That’s going to be a bruise. A big, purple or green or yellow depending on how the blood cells correlate one. A half hour in and the cold room has suddenly become sweltering, Yixing hasn’t been this drenched in sweat since that one-hundred and ten degree day in Seoul in ninth grade gym class. This isn’t that much different, now that he thinks about it. Suffering-wise, at least.

Jongin comes to watch a while after they begin, sitting criss-cross too close to the mat so Yixing has to be aware of where he is to not back up into him. He stays there for a good ten minutes, giving huge grins and cute “Go Yixing!”s that lighten Yixing’s heart just a little bit, giving him a small burst of energy to actually hit Minseok on square in the chest. When this happens, Minseok smiles. And then hits him thrice as hard on the side of the head. That's going to be a migraine.

At an hour, Yixing pleads for a break, and gets a ‘thirty-second water’. This is way harder than he thought it was going to be. At first, it was vigilant Yixing blocking slow hits, but then it turned into terrified Yixing dodging lightning-fast punches by a hair and trying to ease Minseok’s screaming demands by giving a few hits himself. When the break comes, he strains a few final wobbly steps before flopping down next to the bleacher, grabbing both water bottles and kind of hoping he drowns. He removes his helmet; his hair is soaked as if he had taken a shower. As much as Yixing hopes and prays for Jongdae to come in right then and distract his boyfriend for a good forever, no Jongdae shows up and it’s merely _thirty seconds_ and then Yixing’s yelled at to get back on the floor. 

He sluggishly resumes the fight. The break had let his body finally slip into exhaustion, so now he can’t manage what he had literally been doing thirty seconds ago, even with the H2O refresher. 

This doesn’t go unnoticed by Minseok. 

“Dude.” He doesn’t stop the fight. “You’re slacking. Why?” 

“My body– my body thought– thought we– we were– done.” Yixing avoids a sweeping kick. 

“Oh, we’re not even halfway.” Minseok chuckles. Happy. He looks _happy_ about this. 

Yixing blanches. “What?” Comes out in a rushed breath.

“Remember?” Probably not. “I said sparring _amongst_ the other things we were going to do. Strength and endurance training after this.” 

“I thought– that–“ Yixing decides to just speak fast rather than discernable. _“Youwe juskivin example to elarate–_ I don’t think I can do this... I can’t do this.”

“You know.” Minseok suddenly stops, standing straight up. Yixing takes this moment to double over, catching his breath. “You’re low on motivation. Why?” 

“Many things–“ Yixing takes a couple seconds to himself because he’s pretty sure this time he won’t be hit. 

“Because one, I’m exhausted. And one point five, that’s because I am, as established, unathletic.” Yixing casts a glance to the mirror. His chest is all shiny with sweat. “Two, although I believe athletic development is possible for me because I am a human, I don’t believe I have the determination to do it. And three,” For this one, Yixing looks up at Minseok, so he can tell him this face to face. Abducted Dude to Abducted Dude.

“I did absolutely _not_ ask for any of this, so it’s rather hard to put effort towards something I do not want any part in and hate with all of my heart.” (Of course he hates it with his brain, and not his heart, but for the sake of meaningful speech he says ‘heart’). 

Minseok hums, considering. 

“It sounds like you just haven’t found your motivation.” Is his diagnosis. “You need to find what will motivate you. What wakes your _inner spirit.”_

“Alright.” That does make sense, determining what evokes his _inner spirit–_ AKA the amygdala. Perhaps Yixing just needs to find it. Even the greatest mysteries can be in himself. Or cold fusion. Or those eerily realistic wax statues. “How do I do that, then?”

This is when Minseok flashes a grin, raising his fists back up. 

“Practice.”

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

When the sparring is finished, Yixing collapses onto the floor. Slowly, though, because he must be mindful of the bruise on his calf. And also the one on his back. And his thigh. And his ankle. And that spot where he’s pretty sure he had pulled a muscle. He takes off his helmet and gloves, chucking them to the bleachers.

“Jeez.” Minseok takes off his helmet, revealing an only semi-wet mop of hair. “You look dead.”

 _I wish I was._ Yixing almost says out loud, but that sounds like a cry for help and he really doesn’t want Minseok worrying for his mental state because he is already his physical. So instead, he starts to complain. “Why are you so harsh? I am bruised everywhere, I think.” 

“Whatever you’re fighting won’t be easy on you.” Minseok crosses his arms, looking down at (and on) him. “I’m simply preparing you. You’ll get the hang of it.”

Yixing mumbles something along the lines of _yeah, right, because I’ll willingly brawl a space-monster_ before closing his eyes. As soon as his lids shut, his eyes sting from being open and attentive under the bright lights for so long. However, they see them again soon after he feels a soft nudge to his side.

Minseok now has his sneakers on, pointing to the machines area where Jongin was at. More specifically, the weights. Weight racks and bench presses and all these things that send a shiver through Yixing despite the hotness of the room.

“Do we have to?” He knows he sounds like a child, but at this point, he doesn’t care. He knows he's pathetic. And it's not like Minseok is making fun of him, he's just strict. “As observable, I am exhausted and actually hurt and I don’t want to injure anything any worse because then I won’t be able to train healthily which will therefore reduce my low motivation even more and I will never become adequate enough for EXO.”

“Great speech.” Is Minseok's reply. “Now get up.” 

Okay, he didn’t want to come to begging, but here there is no other choice.

“Please, I am begging you.” Chains have anchored down every part of his body, so much that Yixing just stares at the ceiling instead of looking at Minseok for persuasive effect. “You, as an athlete, don’t understand how much pain I am in. I assure you, my body just needs a rest. I promise I will be one hundred percent motivated when I am back healthy–“

_ZAP!_

If Yixing had seemed exhausted, he definitely doesn’t now. He lets out a yelp, jolting as he jumps straight to his feet. Only then he realizes it was the bracelet and not the floor. He looks to his wrist in betrayal, wondering if there’s now a bruise there too. As the shock fades out, it exacerbates all of his injuries with a slow burn in its wake.

Aw, man. It’s been so long since he’s been shocked, too!

Minseok watches the whole thing owl-eyed, and is now replying. “Great, you’re up.” He then grabs ahold of Yixing’s arm in a way that says there’s no escape. “Let’s go try them weights.”

 _Them weights_ start at forty pounds, which quickly sinks down to twenty five when Yixing says his arm is going to snap and the bracelet doesn’t electrocute him. Minseok sits him down on one of the padded benches, showing him the correct movement to do so he doesn’t injure himself and then directs him to do fifty repetitions with the dumbbells. _Fifty._ When he gets to around thirty, Yixing gets too tired to keep complaining and just sighs at Minseok's next dismissal, ignoring the satisfied smirk on his face. He does his right arm first, and then his left. At the final few digits (forty-five and under) he has to strain to do it, and almost every time he ends up letting his arm go straight because he genuinely doesn’t have the strength to pull it up. Even with all his might, his arm simply _won’t_ work. Something broke. 

“Can I be done?” Yixing asks at his left arm at thirteen. 

“Come on, fourteen more.” 

_“Thirteen,_ actually.” Yixing is an exceptional counter, especially during things like this where each repetition is so painful it makes its own individual personal mark. 

_“Fourteen, actually.”_ Minseok mimics him, laughing when Yixing frowns. “Come on, you can do it.”

“I can’t.”

“You can.” 

“I _can’t.”_

“You _can."_

“I’m not joking.” Yixing has had enough and he drops the weight. It nearly lands on Minseok’s toe.

“Dude!” He shouts, jumping back and glaring. “That could’ve literally broke my toe!” 

Yixing’s half-assed, “My bad.” doesn’t sound the least bit apologetic. 

Minseok stares at him for a moment, taking a deep breath of suppression. “I get it, you’re exhausted. But there's no need to be a brat. I’ll excuse it for now. Let’s just go to the bench press.”

What Yixing doesn’t understand is why Minseok thinks he has some sort of authority over him. Is it because he’s older? Or because he’s more athletically apt? In the second case, _everyone_ here would have authority over Yixing. But they don’t. That’s not how it works. Technically, everyone here is an equal. But if things were to go Yixing’s way, authority would be based on intelligence. Intelligence gets things done and done correctly.

Minseok pats the seat on the bench press and Yixing lays on the spot under the bar. On the sides are huge bulky weights Yixing only needs to gesture to and then Minseok gets the _oh, right_ look to his face and removes them. 

“How heavy can you go?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s your weight, again?” 

“I don’t know...” Yixing doesn’t remember the last time he got on a scale... wait, yes he does. At his physical about a year ago. “Actually, I do. Like, one-sixty.”

“Alright, so I would give you around one hundred, but we’re going to go with eighty."

“Thanks.” It comes out sarcastic, but Yixing actually means it. He watches warily as Minseok searches through the giant disks, grabbing two of them and putting one on each side. 

“You’re not putting eighty on each _side_ , correct?”

“Correct.” Minseok chuckles. “It’s a total, don’t worry.”

After he finishes, he hovers over him. “Alright, so you’re going to put your hands here.” He points to two padded places, and Yixing grabs onto the bar there. “And then basically straighten your arms and lift it off of the hook. Then you’ll bring it down and up.” He then taps on Yixing’s elbows. “Make sure these are pointing downwards, not out. Like a pushup.” Yixing knows this is correct because he is always yelled at for doing a pushup with his elbows out. Hence he hates gym class and heeds Minseok.

“Go ahead.” 

Yixing can feel his (broken) muscles crying out in agony as he straightens his arms, lifting the bar off with not as much effort as he thought. He goes down with ease, so the cold metal touches his chin and he lets half the weight onto his chest. It’s when he starts to push up that he feels the vigor, arms shaking as he struggles to get it up.

“Come on! You got this!” Minseok’s cheering only makes him feel more pathetic. Isn’t the average dude supposed to do at least one hundred pounds?

“I think I'm going to drop it.” After this, the prospect of dropping it intrudes his thoughts. What if he drops it onto his chest? Is he going to kill himself? This is painful. This is not how he wants to die. 

“No you’re not!”

“You don’t know that!” Yixing tries the _happy thoughts_ mechanism. Happy thoughts, like babies– no, babies are disgusting. Kittens, Cat– no, he misses home. What he ate yesterday– yeah, that was good–

Junmyeon.

Yixing gasps as his arms give out, strength coming back just in time to save his neck from being crushed. 

“Holy shit!” No. He’s not doing this. No way. Nope. 

“Just try again!” Minseok responds to his utter shock. Did he _not_ just see him almost die?! “Focus! Don’t be distracted.”

 _"Are you blind?_ I'm– I'm literally going to drop this thing on myself! I can't help EXO if I'm dead. Please take it off." Yixing knows he'll snap his arms in half if he tries to lift it again and there's no way he's risking any maneuvers over his head or to the side.

To his shock, Minseok just _laughs._

Yixing glares, and at that he laughs even more, eyes crinkled and teeth shining and Jesus fucking christ, this guy really _is_ a sadist! What has he gotten himself (been forced) into...

"I hope you'll feel guilty for the rest of your life after I drop this on my neck." Yixing retorts because _that's_ going to convince him to take it off.

 _"Psh,_ stop being so dramatic." Minseok says when he finally calms down, and Yixing retracts his thought before the dinner about his sympathy. Minseok is absolutely _not_ sympathetic in any way whatsoever. 

When Yixing only stares unimpressedly, Minseok finally concedes. "Look, if you can do just ten, I'll let you go. For the whole day."

That isn't a good deal because Yixing would much rather leave _now,_ but he takes what he can get and does what Minseok says and actually _focuses_ on lifting the thing. But then, his mind, the evil creature it is, knowing that it’s _not_ supposed to distract itself, starts to. _Junmyeon_. Let's think about Junmyeon because that's how he had almost crushed himself. Where is Junmyeon? How is his day going? When can he go see him and complain about everything that’s been happening? When can he go see his handsome face– 

_“AYE!”_ A distant shout resonates throughout the gymnasium. Yixing recognizes the voice better than anyone’s. _“MY BITCHES!”_

He takes in a sharp breath, finally extending his arms all the way.

Hey! He did it! Yixing looks to Minseok, who just raises a motherly brow and points back down. Yixing sighs, figuring that occupying himself with even this is still better than talking to–

“Baekhyun in the _house!_ Well, gym. Sup, guys.” Yixing keeps a wary eye on Baekhyun as he approaches, finally reaching them and clapping Minseok on the shoulder. He then looks to Yixing, less-than-subtly scanning him up and down. His face contorts into surprise.

“Oh my _gawsh_. Is that _you_ under all that sweat, Yixing?” Baekhyun’s teasing voice accompanies his impish grin. He leans on the butt of the equipment, shamelessly staring at his body. 

Yixing just doesn’t say anything, slowly going up, and then down. _Up up up up up, down down down down down. Three._ For some reason, it has gotten easier.

“Hey, Minseok,” Baekhyun looks back to the other and then to Yixing. “How much’s he doing?” 

“Eighty...” Yixing tries to not let Baekhyun’s laugh bother him. It ends up as successful as he has been trying to not let _I’m newbie Yixing and I’ve been abducted onto this spaceship and_ oh-em-gee, _it’s terrible! I don’t know what’s going on and I sound like a robot and I hate Baekhyun and, ugh! I HATE my life!_ bother him.

Then, he gets dangerously close, hovering over him so all Yixing can really see is his face. At his suffering, Baekhyun’s downturned eyes light up in amusement. “Aww, you’re adorable.” He coos like some sort of sadist (there's more than one, isn't there...), eyes then going back down to his body. “Like a baby.” 

It takes everything in Yixing’s power to 1) refrain from snapping, and 2) keep the weight slowly going up and down. Tension accumulates as Baekhyun observes; scrutinizes. From this, adrenaline rushes into his limbs, as if he could be attacked any second. This would be so much easier if he had a shirt on. If he weren't completely exposed for Baekhyun to point and laugh at. Yixing takes a shaky breath, swallowing harshly. 

“Please, stop doing that.” He grits his teeth. 

“Doing what?”

“Looking at me so closely.”

“Aww, ya shy?” 

“No–“ The struggle makes his words emerge tense. “You’re making me uncomfortable, and it’s making this harder.” 

“What harder, _eighty pounds?”_

Yixing grimances. He can hear Minseok’s snort, and how he tries to cover it up with a cough and scolds, _“Not funny,_ Baekhyun.” 

He takes a deep breath. “I’m not– athletic, if you– you couldn’t tell.”

“Nah, I could tell.” Baekhyun grins. “It’s alright, though. A man with a little bit of chubs is cute.” 

“I–“ Yixing is about to say something, but then he feels _hands_ on him. It takes a moment to process. Like the absolute degenerate he is, Baekhyun’s lithe fingers grab the skin around his navel. He squeezes slightly as he murmurs in a high-pitched voice: 

_“Hi, I’m Yixing’s tummy. He’s trying to burn me off. Uh-oh!”_

Vexation erupts in Yixing’s chest. The weight suddenly becomes feather-light as he lifts it and drops it onto the bar above. A small but heavy _cling!_ sounds.

“Come on, Baekhyun.” Minseok finally steps in. “Don’t be an ass, now.” Yet he’s half laughing.

“I’m just teasing, chill.” Baekhyun says, then looking to Yixing. “Right, Xing?”

“No.” he answers as he sits up. Yixing has never been one for violence, because reason and civility is a better way to solve problems, but he can’t help but think how good it would feel to punch Baekhyun right now. Or maybe push him back into the machine aside. Baekhyun is smaller than him. He can probably overpower him for a moment. He had back at the hotel. For a moment. To be fair, no matter what poisonous words Yixing spits at the other, Baekhyun is still bright and happy, as if he thinks Yixing is joking. Maybe a bruise or five would finally get the message across that Yixing hates him. 

“What do you mean, _no?”_ Baekhyun chuckles, placing his hands on Yixing’s shoulders and leaning forward. “You know I’m just kidding. Don’t be so–“

Yixing knows what’s coming next, so he just does it. On adrenaline-powered impulse (and a good thirty seconds of reasoning whilst seething), he blindly mimics what Minseok had been doing and swings a closed fist straight into Baekhyun's face. His hand immediately burns and there's something wet, but it makes its impact and Baekhyun stumbles and Yixing takes that chance to kick upward, hammering the guy square in the nuts. It has enough force that he stumbles backwards onto the machine behind, smacking his head on a metal bar. He yelps, then falling off of the machine to curl up into a fetal position. From this angle, Yixing can see his face contorted in pain as he holds his privates. His bloody face. Yixing had gotten him in the nose. 

And despite the agonized cry Baekhyun lets out and Minseok’s horrified gasp and the blood on his fist, Yixing doesn’t regret it one bit. Ethically, this is still the right thing to do. He had tried and tried to solve the problem peacefully, and when it came to no avail, he tried it with a little more force. It makes him feel empowered, so much that he has to stop the thoughts of _what if I grab this weight and drop it on him, too?_ It’s not murder he’s going for. Yet. Hopefully this gets the message across.

“Yixing!” Minseok shouts, but strangely enough he doesn’t sound particularly angry. Surprised, rather. A bewildered look spreads his face. He’s kneeling down next to Baekhyun, trying to wrench him out of his little ball. “Why would you do that?!”

Yixing remains standing, looking down at Baekhyun. In a completely non-sadist way, he feels satisfied seeing him like this. Perhaps Yixing _can_ get justice for himself here. 

Oh, is he crying? Oops. 

“Because ever since he kidnapped me this guy has been degrading me under the pretext of, _I’m just teasing,_ but he’s clearly not. I’ve tried to stifle my anger, because maybe Baekhyun's such an asshole because he's insecure, or maybe he has some sort of inferiority complex, but I suppose...” When Baekhyun’s teary eyes meet his, Yixing takes the opportunity to comedically shrug. Palms up and saccharine smile and everything. It feels amazing. “I’ve had enough." 

Minseok runs his hand through Baekhyun’s hair. “Come on... you’re alright... get up...” He once again tries to pry him open, but Baekhyun just lets out a whine and hugs himself tighter. “Stop being such a baby.” 

Baekhyun’s voice emerges in a kind of weakness Yixing has never heard from him. “I– I don’t think I’ll be able to _have_ babies after this.” 

“Oh.” Minseok’s eyes widen as he looks up at Yixing, mouthing something he doesn’t understand. He then looks back down to Baekhyun, digging his arms under him. “It’s okay, you’re gay anyways.” He soothes. 

_“Bi.”_ Baekhyun sniffles. 

“Baek, you know no one believes that.” Minseok hoists Baekhyun up, awkwardly holding him in one arm for a moment to point Yixing somewhere. 

“There’s a locker room over there. Go get yourself cleaned up. I’m bringing him to the medical unit.” 

“Okay.” Yixing nods, waving childishly. He makes sure to do it with the hand he punched with him with. “Bye-bye Hyung! Bye-bye Baekhyun!” 

Baekhyun mutters something indiscernible while Minseok mouths a ‘goodbye’, then turning to exit. He easily carries Baekhyun, as if he’s dead or something.

Only if.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so, we got to know minseok, another lovely source of yixing's suffering (i am not a sadist myself i promise), but at least yixing's finally got some revenge!
> 
> also, i wanted to say that if all of the negativity surrounding what's going on has affected you (it certainly has i), i hope this can serve as a bit of an escape <3\. please take care i love you!!


	17. Trouble with Numbers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing realizes a recurring pattern within the EXO ship.

**YIXING NO** longer feels tired, but elated, despite how he had just seriously injured someone. It’s not that he enjoys pain, it’s just that he enjoys the pain of those who have wronged him. Perhaps, Yixing thinks as he skips over to where Minseok pointed, this injury is enough to balance things out between them, and Yixing can forgive Baekhyun when he apologizes. _When_ , because typically, apologies are inevitable (example: Kyungsoo). However, there is the chance Baekhyun will start hating him because Yixing had attacked his probably favourite part of his body. Essentially, Yixing is rolling the dice of, but not limited to: 1) Baekhyun will come apologize to him and try to be kinder from now on, 2) Baekhyun will become very scared of him whenever he is in his presence, 3) Baekhyun will start hating him and do whatever it takes to make Yixing’s life miserable, 4) Baekhyun won’t take all of this to heart and just brush it off, 5) Baekhyun will kill him, or 6) Baekhyun will die of his injuries. 

The locker room is near the power training room except outside the mats. It looks nearly the same as the bathrooms: baby blue tiles on the walls, a white tiled floor, bright fluorescent lights. Showers line one wall and sinks the other, and this time, to Yixing’s rejoice, there is an actual, authentic human toilet. Of course, there isn’t a stall nor any sort of privacy walls provided, but it’s still a toilet he doesn’t have to strap himself to and then float around while doing his business in. There are also large white lockers that line the back wall, each labeled with the agent name in Hangul.

Yixing sees Sehun at the far left, as XUANXU. KAI is next to him. However, at the third one, the name tag is blank. Then, there’s D.O, DOHBI, CHEN, HYUNEE, LAY, oh– that’s him! SUHO– oh, that’s Junmyeon! And then two blank ones, and then XIUMIN.

In total, there are twelve.

This time, Yixing stops, backing up to recount the lockers. Yes, there are definitely twelve. What’s up with this number? Now that he's thinking about it, Yixing has seen twelve _everywhere_. And it’s not like twelve is an exceptionally good number or anything. In every sense, all numbers are equal except if you’re talking value, then there is none exactly the same. However, if it were going by value, then why wouldn’t there be a thousand EXO members? (That was just a rhetorical question, Randomness. Just hypothetical. Please don’t take that seriously).

So why is it always as if there are not just _nine_ people in EXO, but twelve? Like there are things missing; gone. Yixing pulls pieces from his memory: 

The twelve holes in the rec room’s monitor. 

The dining table too large for just the nine of them.

The _twelve_ orbs they had to gather which were said to consolidate _each_ member’s powers. 

Heck, even The Prophecy said it: The _twelve_ forces! 

And now this. Yixing narrows his eyes, looking at the three blank slates. They aren’t in any apparent order, one all the way towards Sehun and then the final two right before Minseok. It’s not like there isn’t stuff Yixing doesn’t know here, because that’s definitely not the case, but it’s that, he’s now noticing, whenever he seems to inquire, he never gets a clear answer. Are there three to come? Or are there three that have already come? Where are they? 

Yixing then recalls the emails he read. More specifically, this one: 

_TELL YIFAN TO FUCKING SOTP OR IM GOING TO JUMP INTO THE SUN_

‘Yifan’ must be one of the three not here, which solidifies Yixing’s conclusion. There aren’t three members to come. They have been here. But why aren’t they here now? Or are they? Has Yixing been so distracted as to not notice a Yifan? No, that’s very unlikely. Also, by how Baekhyun had brushed ‘Yifan’ off as a typo... again, the never clear answer.

He’ll have to barrage whoever he sees next, Yixing decides while opening his locker.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

In the middle of his shower, he hears the door open and close. 

“Who is there?” Yixing calls out, looking to the curtain to make sure it’s shut tightly.

“Me!” Minseok calls out. Yixing can hear a locker opening. “You got him pretty bad, dude.”

“Baekhyun?”

“Yeah. I haven’t seen him like that since RF gifted him the results of Love Island season five last Christmas.” The shower next to his turns on and the metal rings on the top bar quickly condense and spread out with that _woosh_ sound. 

“Christmas?” Yixing questions. “You celebrate Christmas here? And _RF_ gives you presents?”

“Well, yeah. She’s not completely heartless.” Minseok says. “In fact, she’s the first self aware robot. For Christmas she gives us a bunch of stuff. Usually things from Earth like media, or items. Sometimes cool technology things, though.” 

“Okay.” Yixing thinks about that. So far, this is the _only_ merciful thing this place has. A constituted Christmas.

“Also.” Minseok begins, and there are suddenly two hands on the top of the divider. Yixing flings himself into the curtain as two cat eyes appear. The cold plastic makes him cringe.

“One, _chill.”_ He says, eyes widened slightly, “But two... you know what happened back there, right?”

“What?” Yixing is confused. He reaches outside of the shower, fumbling for his towel. 

“How you lifted the weight right up and punched Baekhyun.” 

“Yes.” Yixing will never forget that glorious moment. “What about it?”

Minseok’s eyes smile, “Your _motivation!”_ He exclaims. “That was motivation!” 

Yixing finally gets his towel, maneuvering with the shower curtain to wrap it around himself without flashing. After a moment of contemplation, he gasps slightly in realization. Minseok’s right. That _was_ motivation! 

“It was...” He runs through what happened. Because he had motivation, this thing happened where adrenaline came and he felt like he could do anything– and pretty much did, for the most part. Although it was a negative emotion, anger, it’s still something. Maybe hating Byun Baekhyun isn’t the best method of coaxing yourself through rigorous galactic warrior training, but it’s a start.

“Yeah, I’m proud.” Minseok sinks back down into the shower. “So just every time you need motivation, think of Baekhyun. You know, like in those movies where the character thinks of someone they hate to motivate them.” 

“That’s my plan.” Yixing can almost laugh at how, instead of worrying for Baekhyun, Minseok is celebrating Yixing. Poor Baekhyun. (Not really, though). 

“Also.” He remembers when he goes to the lockers, taking out some – conveniently just _there_ – dry clothes of his. “Can I ask you a question?” 

“Yeah, of course man.” 

“And can you answer it truthfully, please?” Yixing adds the _please_ for guilting effect. 

Minseok’s face peeks out of the curtain with a worried expression. His voice becomes less casual. “Yeah... What is it, Yixing?”

Yixing points to the blank locker next to Sehun’s, and then the other two past Junmyeon’s. “There are blank lockers. Twelve in total. There are also twelve game controller cords in the rec room. I had to collect twelve orbs on the mission. There are ‘twelve forces’, The Prophecy says.” Yixing sits down, closely watching Minseok’s face. It remains stoic. 

“So from this,” He continues. “I have concluded there are actually twelve EXO members. But I haven’t seen the other three anywhere. But I don’t think they’re coming in the future, because I’ve heard of a _Yifan_ and I think he is one of the members I haven’t seen? So they’re just absent, or something? I’ve never gotten a clear explanation… so could you? Explain.”

Suddenly, Minseok’s face is back inside the shower curtain.

“Uh,” He takes a moment to answer, Yixing notices. “There... aren’t twelve members?” 

“But evidence says there are.” Yixing then recalls. “Jongin even said it himself! He said there are twelve members.”

“There– Jongin was joking.” The shower goes off, and Minseok quickly grabs his towel and comes out. He still has shampoo in his hair, Yixing also notices.

He points. “Your–“

“New beauty treatment. Okay, I have to go, bye!” Minseok makes a beeline to the door. Now fully clothed, Yixing follows, and then, to his shock, Minseok starts to _run._ He ditches the towel halfway, streaking out the door and slamming it shut before Yixing even reaches it.

When he does, he yanks on the handle, but for some reason, it doesn’t budge. For a moment, panic fills him as he keeps pulling. A few moments and it abruptly lets, making a loud shattering noise.

On the other side of the door is a – now destroyed – chunk of ice. Minseok is nowhere to be seen.

“Minseok?!” He calls, voice echoing throughout the empty gymnasium. He _disappeared._

After five minutes of scaling the establishment, Yixing gives up on trying to find him, getting the idea that if Minseok won’t answer him, maybe someone else will. He exits the gym, starting to roam the halls. Hopefully he finds Jongin or Kyungsoo, because Jongin is the only one that has confirmed twelve members and Kyungsoo _had_ said he would ‘explain later’.

Now, Yixing knows it’s definitely something sensitive about the other three. They have been here, but now they are not. And for some reason, people are having an aversion to tell Yixing about it. A _secret._ It worries him, because so far everything he questioned here has been laid out and explained to him. Nothing has been concealed. Except for this. 

So what could it be about _Yifan_ and these two others he doesn’t know the names of? Yixing wonders. Why is he not supposed to know about their existence, yet it is so obvious from contextual clues? Were they bad? Did they turn evil and go create a space colony of their own and now they’re trying to destroy the universe? Or were they really good and progressed to a more serious unit of this whole operation? Were they even ‘members’ in the first place? Or something else? Were they _people?_

Yixing decides to go to the dormitories, hoping that at least someone will be in either. He finds his way back on his own, fortunately enough. He has recognized an actual pattern of the ship. The main hallway is an oval shape with a bunch of maze-like ones spreading out from it. The latter is what Yixing can’t navigate. However, the important stuff, he has noticed, is in the oval hallway. The gymnasium, the rec room, the mission meeting room, RF’s room, and:

The dormitories! 

For the first time, Yixing enters EXO-K. It looks identical to the EXO-M, except that the beds are more spread out and there is a potted plant in the corner. Upon closer investigation, there is a name tag that says _plant._ How creative.

However, there’s nobody in here. Yixing turns to leave when suddenly, someone appears _right_ in front of him. 

“Jongin!” Yixing shouts in surprise, stumbling backwards. Jongin reaches forward, stabilizing him. 

“Hi Yixing!” Jongin shouts just as loud back which is weird because Yixing had shouted only because he was scared. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were in here.” 

“Do you just teleport wherever you need to go?”

“Well, if it’s far, yeah.” Jongin goes over to the potted plant, where he kneels and starts to dig through the dirt. “It takes me as much energy as walking would, so it’s the same either way.” He then pulls out two white packages, spotted with mulch. “Popsicle?” 

Yixing squints at the plant, the dirt. “No thanks.”

“Suit yourself.” Jongin puts the second one back, burying it again and repositioning the plant. So _this_ is where he hides the popsicles. Not obvious at all. When he struggles to stand up, Yixing is distracted from his question. 

“How is your injury?” Yixing asks instead.

“It’s alright.” Jongin throws the wrapper in the garbage, which this time, is simply a pail. Figures, since outside the dorms there are two exceptionally large disposals. Then, Jongin turns to him, grabbing the hem of his shirt and pulling it up.

And wow, is this guy _ripped._ (In both ways...) 

Jongin has a similar physique to Minseok, except that he’s tall so he looks like he has been sculpted by an actual god. Or is an actual god. A large scar runs from his shoulder to his torso, but instead of the pink as Yixing had previously saw, it’s now a deep red, and considerably thinner.

“That’s healing fast...” Yixing comments, but then figures if there is advanced computer technology, then there is also advanced medicinal technology. 

“Yeah, it’s getting there.” Jongin sits on one of the beds, swinging his legs. The sight reminds him of a little kid. He pats the spot next to him, and Yixing doesn’t refuse. His legs are tired from all of the Minseok. 

“What did–“

“I have–“

Yixing waits for Jongin to say, “You go first.” 

And then he does. 

“I have a question.” Yixing thinks about how he wants to word this, but then he comes up with another question that he should ask first because the second question will take awhile and may not end in the opportunity to ask the first second.

“Yeah?” 

“Why do you and Sehun dislike each other.” Yixing asks because _why is there so much tension between you two like I can literally feel it_ sounds a bit too blunt.

Jongin grimaces, and that’s one of the few times Yixing has seen anything on his face other than a sunshine smile. “Well, something happened.”

“Which is...?”

“Well,” Jongin takes a bite out of his popsicle, subsequently gritting his teeth because you’re not supposed to bite popsicles. “He came here like a year and a half ago. He’s the last one to come here other than you.”

So the second shortest stay is one _year._ And a _half._

“And when he first came, he was really mean and rude to us all. So basically, Baekhyun and Jongdae and Minseok and Chanyeol and Junmyeon and Kyungsoo and me,” (He _literally_ could have just said everyone!) “came together to make a plan to try to make him nicer. But everyone had different ideas. Minseok said to just talk to him. Junmyeon said to be very kind and he’ll eventually warm up. But Jongdae and Baekhyun said to make his life miserable so he’ll toughen up.” 

Yixing can’t imagine Sehun being the center of attention, but apparently he was. A year and a half ago. 

“So we all agreed on Junmyeon’s decision because he’s the leader and it was nice. Except a little later I was walking down the hall and Baekhyun pulled me into this closet with Jongdae and Kyungsoo and told me that they were going to do some reverse psycho-ledging.” Yixing narrows his eyes, but then realizes what he meant to say. “And that instead of being nice to him until he warms up, they’re going to pull pranks on him until he warms up. And that I was part of it.”

“That doesn’t sound very nice.” Yixing is in _no_ place to be talking about what is nice and what is not, but he just got the instinct with Jongin, as if correcting a child.

“Yeah, but it’s fair. He was _really_ rude. So he deserved it.”

Yixing shrugs, nodding. “You’re right.” (He can’t believe he just said this to _Jongin,_ out of all people). 

“So we did things like move his stuff around, tell him a bunch of different weird things, shave his head.” So _that’s_ why his hair is shorter compared to the others? “That thing where you put his hand in warm water while he’s sleeping. Stuff like that.”

Wow. How pleasant EXO is.

“So why does he seem to hate only you, then?”

“Because I did something a little too mean.”

“Which is?”

“Well, he had this dog he really loved and wouldn’t shut up about. So one time Kyungsoo made some stew, and I told the meat pieces inside were Vivi. Vivi’s his dog.” 

His jaw drops. _That’s not funny, it’s horrible. That’s not funny, it’s horrible. That’s not funny, it’s–_

Yixing snorts, a laugh escaping. Jongin gives him a look. What? It’s funny? So what he’s a bad person? He already knows this. And _Jongin_ was the one who did it!

“And he _believed_ you?” He diverts the attention from his terrible person. 

“Yeah. When we took Sehun, he was in his room with Vivi. I’m actually the one who got him, and I had picked up Vivi before waking up Sehun to take him. He screamed at me to not touch his dog, so I teleported downstairs and put it there before going back up, but Sehun didn’t know that. So he believed me cause that and we were _really_ mean to him, so killing his dog wouldn’t be too hard to believe.

“I told him this later, when everyone stopped being mean, but he didn’t believe me. Still doesn’t.” Jongin frowns. “And then he started being an asshole to _just_ me, which wasn’t fair whatsoever. He just hates me because he wants someone to hate. But whatever, I never liked him either.” Yixing doesn’t think Sehun’s head on Jongin’s shoulder is mutual hatred, but okay. “I was so happy when he moved to EXO-M.”

“Wait, he _moved_ to EXO-M?” Yixing then prepares his next question.

“Yeah, there weren’t enough people and you weren’t coming for a while so he got moved. Now you guys suffer his snoring.” Yixing grimaces, but right now isn’t the time to focus on trivial matters. 

“Jongin. Can I ask you a question?”

“Ya.” Jongin then throws the stick into the trash can. 

“Okay– well, one: if you put the wrapper in there, people see the dirt and can infer that you’re hiding the popsicles in the plant.” Jongin gasps, having a revelation. “And two, where are the other three members?”

“What?” Jongin looks up to him, face blank. 

“I know there are twelve members in EXO, because you had told me and also I see room for twelve people everywhere.” Yixing explains. “But three are missing. One of them is Yifan. Who are they and why aren’t they here?”

“Um.” Jongin hesitates. Again, with hesitation! The mood changes so fast he feels some sort of whiplash. “Yeah. They aren’t here anymore. They were... transferred.”

“Transferred?” Yixing raises a brow. “What does that mean? To where?” 

“To another place. Here. They just don’t work with us anymore.”

Jongin’s being awfully vague. “Why not?”

He looks to the floor. “Because they were bad. So now they’re working somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“Uh, on the ship.” 

“Where on the ship?” 

“Somewhere.” Jongin then continues at Yixing’s glare. “I– I don’t know. They don’t tell us. Cause like I said, they were bad.” 

“What did they do?” Yixing asks.

“I don’t know…”

“What? What do you mean, you don’t–”

“Can we stop talking about it?” Jongin’s voice breaks. Is he okay? 

_“Why?”_ Yixing barrages. “Why is it a sensitive subject? Did something happen? Why can’t I know about Yifan and these other–“

_“Stop!”_

Jongin’s head is aimed down. A deep breath is taken before he continues, “I shouldn’t have…” 

But suddenly, he’s gone. 

Silence engulfs Yixing as he looks around the room, eyes settling on the floor. The only thing in Jongin’s wake is a droplet of water, but Yixing’s not so sure it’s from the popsicle…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mysterious music oooohhhhhhhhooooooooooooo
> 
> thank u for reading mwah


	18. Not Supposed to be Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Curiosity killed the cat. But Yixing's not a cat, so he gets out of it alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW/SPOILER: 
> 
> graphic descriptions of pain/injury

**YIXING EXPERIENCES** a new kind of worry.

It’s a feeling similar to when he was first abducted. The panic of being ripped from his world, having no idea what was going on, being seemingly in danger, and things defying all logic happening as if it were normal. However, despite the incredulity, everything was – and has been – explained. Although it may not make perfect sense in his head, such as why the people here speak Korean meanwhile most of the technology speaks Portuguese, there is still an explanation provided to him through the simplicity of asking.

This is different.

At least thrice Yixing has inquired about these missing members, and at least thrice he has received a hesitant answer. And Yixing’s not stupid. He knows that they have gotten nervous when he has asked and their answers have been not only tentative, but contradicting, because there is a negative connotation to these missing members that he doesn’t know. That he is not _supposed_ to know, for some reason he also does not know– but it can’t be good. 

Does it have something to do with his amateur position? Will they suddenly spill every detail about Yifan and the two others when he hits a month because they didn’t want to stress him out further during his arrival? This seems unlikely, considering nothing nor anyone has had much mercy for Yixing so far. So what is it? Why can’t he know?

This time, Yixing has relatively the same plan: he’s going to ask (what else can he really do?)– however, he is going to ask the robot. RF. But on the off-chance that he sees a person, he is going to barrage them ruthlessly until he gets a clear answer. He hopes it is someone easy, like Junmyeon (who is too nice to lie), or maybe Kyungsoo (who is too blunt to be vague). Only if the ship wasn’t so large, then he wouldn’t have so much trouble simply locating RF’s room or one of the eight other people. Right now, Yixing is scaling the oval hallway. He is pretty sure the room is along here and it is likely schedules pertain to the primary hallway. He’ll really have to get a map sometime.

When Yixing reaches the curve of the long end of the oval, he hears something. Stopping, he looks down one of the sub-hallways. As he’s about to brush it off and continue, he hears the noise again. This time, it’s with enough clarity that he can decipher that it’s a technologically induced sound. Like a machine. Like RF.

Hence, he heads that way. The hexagonal space narrows by at least two feet (how has he not noticed this before?), and the lights become a bit dimmer. Rooms space out vastly and there are no more cleaner bots scaling the floors (alternatively: trying to trip him). When the noise sounds again, he takes a left.

As it becomes louder, Yixing starts to walk faster. His ears guide him through all sorts of lefts and rights, corroborating his theory of the hallways getting shorter and disorganized as they get further from the center. When he gets far enough, the doors become a classic rectangular rather than the hexagonal electricity-operated. Some of them are slightly ajar, revealing dark rooms. The hallway is almost eerie if not for the wall lights being a warm color (as compared to a murder hospital fluorescent). The noise sounds like a machine’s grind, like in the movies where a robot is moving a giant arm. Once Yixing stops to turn back and go down another hallway, he's so close he's not quite sure which direction is right, he realizes he can just shout. 

_“Hello…?”_ He mumbles. _H_ _e_ couldn’t even hear himself that well. 

“Hello?!”

Suddenly, his wrist beeps.

Fear spikes through Yixing as per usual, but he soon relaxes, because this light is white. He narrows his eyes in confusion, but then recognizes what it is doing. A black arrow appears, a monochrome gradient washing through as it emphasizes him to turn back. He must have passed it.

Yixing follows his bracelet back out of the small hall. His eyes are aimed down at it as he blindly follows the arrows through the maze-like space. It reminds him of navigating his highschool, except that his wrist would be his phone and he would have a much harder time because there would be the obstacles of his peers and teachers and the ever-so-often couple stopping in the middle of the goddamn hallway to give a goodbye hug. Yixing was good at this though, seasoned through his years of _I’m-looking-at-my-phone-because-I-don’t-want-anyone-to-talk-to-me_ in public. The only time he has ever fallen was when a kid wearing heelys wasn’t very skilled and Yixing was the unfortunate victim. That wasn’t even his fault. After this, Seo Changbin was suspended. 

When the arrows stop and the screen shuts off, Yixing looks up. Surprisingly, he finds himself right back in the main hallway. However, there is no robot nor person in sight. 

_Weird..._ Yixing looks around, calling out a “Hello?” to no avail. Why has the bracelet sent him back? There’s nothing here?

So, he just turns and goes back into the hallways.

As he had anticipated, the arrows come back on, pointing him in the opposite direction. Yixing doesn’t heed, though, and goes back to where he was; towards the noise, which has yet to cease. This is also strange, but not to the point of anxiety. There has probably just been a mistake, or maybe there is an explanation he just doesn’t know. Like, that noise was robot sex and he was about to very awkwardly interrupt, or something.

Yixing still hasn’t ruled that possibility out by the time he reaches the loudest point. Now, down the hallway, he sees a shadow expanding and contracting. He trails it to a door, which keeps opening and shutting and making that grinding sound. When he progresses, his bracelet beeps once more, but Yixing still continues (with flinching and getting the life scared out of him, of course).

It turns out the door is stuck on some sort of tool, preventing it from shutting. Yixing puts his foot out to stop the motion, then picking the obstructor up. It looks like a wrench, except there are several jaws everywhere. Somehow, it was caught here during some sort of process. Suddenly, Yixing is very curious. He knows that there are bots other than RF that do things around the ship (for example: the cleaning bots), but, besides the cleaners, he has never actually encountered any of them, much less seen what they do. From the bracelet pointing him away from here, it also seems that this is a clandestine operation. 

The door had been misleading in regards to the room’s size. This place reminds Yixing of the power training gymnasium, except that everything is light and fluorescent so it takes a couple seconds for his eyes to adjust. He places the tool on a workbench.

Though ambiguous, this place looks like a sort of factory. Yixing proceeds through shelves and boxes filled to the brim with parts and wires; all sorts of technology, yet, strangely enough, there isn’t one moving thing in here. His wide eyes scan all over, up to the ceiling where lights and a large industrial fan hang, and down to the floor where he avoids tripping over something that looks like a cord. The place is a mess. 

What catches Yixing’s eye is the back of the room.

A long conveyor belt like one he’d see at an airport lines the back wall. Crowded together are several robots that look like RF_05, except they are smaller and instead of the color red lining them, blue does. Most of them are standing up straight, back to him, but some are prone, and others have sections of them torn open. This is definitely some sort of mass production. And, judging by the state of the room, a work in progress.

Yixing goes to one of the ends of the conveyor, peeking through the black curtain to only see that it continues, darkness obscuring anything else. He then hops up onto the belt, jumping over it to face the anterior of the robots. Back here are several buckets full of parts and tools, and there is a door that he tries to open but can’t because it’s locked. He looks around for a key, but that doesn’t last long.

This place must be one of the many technological production places, Yixing reasons. It makes sense that if an advanced intelligence like this is happening unbeknownst to planet Earth, then it must be creating and innovating autonomously, hence everything is made through Exoplanet and the ship. Self-improving artificial intelligence running this would be his first guess, but considering that A) it seems unlikely because Earth has made self-improving artificial intelligence sound impossible, B) this whole thing was _built_ by humans, and C) there is missing _Yifan_ and the other two, there may be other people on this ship unknown to him doing this. 

The question, however, is why is this yet another thing Yixing is not supposed to know? Why had the bracelet beeped and tried to send him back? Is it because they think he will meddle? That’s possible, he supposes.

Yixing then notices a button in the center of the robots. The only button on them, in fact. Assuming that it won’t self-destruct and kill him upon contact, he presses it.

Despite how he literally pushed the button so obviously something is going to happen, Yixing still flinches when the robot animates, straightening itself as a blue eye (in comparison to RF’s red one) lights up. A feminine voice speaks (maybe the female robot voices is the woman part of this whole EXO operation!).

“Hello. My name is RD_06. Prototype 18455, version 3.”

Yixing waits for a _how may I help you?_ like he'd get from most robots, but none comes.

“Hi.” He greets. Then, from the center, a hole opens in RD_06 and a mechanical arm protrudes. Yixing backs up. Is it trying to punch him? 

“It is polite to shake someone’s hand when you first meet them.” It says.

 _Oh._ Yixing laughs, tentatively taking the two-fingered ‘hand’. RD_06’s limb moves up and down slightly before folding back into itself. 

“But you’re not a person, you’re a robot.” Unless it's a robot that thinks it's a person. Or a person trapped inside a robot. Maybe _that's_ where Yifan and these two others are.

“I’m self-aware and self-improving. This sounds just like something a human would do. I even use contractions. Isn’t that enough?” The intonation on the third sentence makes it sound creepily human-like.

“Self-improving?” Yixing raises a brow. So it _is_ self-improving artificial intelligence. Interesting.

“Yes, self-improving. Like my sisters, RF and CF. Vermillion designed us to carry on his legacy, which includes being able to improve ourselves when he could no longer.”

Wait a minute. No, wait a whole fucking hour, because _what?_

 _“CF?_ Who, or, _what_ , is CF?” Yixing has never heard of a _CF_. But then again, he has also never heard of a _RD_06_. Or a _Yifan_. Or a–

 _“Vermillion?”_ He adds. “Who’s that? What’s his ‘legacy’? Sorry, I’m new here. I don’t have a lot of information.” 

“Who are you?” RD_06 asks instead.

“Agent Lay.” Yixing answers instead of his name, figuring it’ll probably recognize it. Maybe now he can ask about the missing members and _finally_ get an explanation! Along with all of these new things, of course.

“Agent Lay...” Suddenly, the blue eye on the protype flashes, a flat ray scanning him up and down. 

“Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here." 

Yixing begins to ask _why not?_ _,_ but all of the sudden, his wrist starts to pinch.

No, sting.

No, _burn._

One second, it's numb, the next, it's hell. A scalding stovetop clenches his wrist in an iron grip and the bracelet sears through the skin. A scratchy cry escapes his throat and his wide eyes snap to RD_06 in a panic.

“What’s– what’s happening?! Why is it burning?!” His breathing becomes ragged in a matter of seconds, his heart threatens to burst out of his chest, he's going to drown. He jerks his wrist; can he shake it off?! Can he swing his arm enough to out the inferno?! Can he smother it?! What can he do?! What can he do?! A moment of hesitation and he slams his wrist into the corner of the conveyor belt, trying to at least disable the thing. It doesn't work. It continues to burn. It's still burning. His hand hits something and his palm is lacerated. The belt stains a maroon, and through teary eyes Yixing sees blood gushing from his shaking hand. Why is it burning?! Why isn’t he supposed to be here?! 

“Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here.” The robot repeats itself and when Yixing looks from his palm, he finds it shut off. But the scalding _still doesn’t stop._ It’s targeted at his wrist, tearing through each layer of skin, but it feels as if it's his whole body on fire. 

_Agent Lay, you're not supposed to be here._

Rarely does Zhang Yixing ever have to go on impulse; to think on his feet. He always takes the time to weigh his options, think critically in order to make the best possible decision. But it's different this time. He's hurting too much; he has to go to his instincts. 

But getting out of here is a decision he would make with or without mulling it over.

Adrenaline immediately shoves Yixing into action, practically diving over the belt. It sends two of the prototypes crashing into the floor with him. He scrambles to his feet, hands catching all sorts of stings and scratches from stray parts. Despite his aching muscles from Minseok’s workout, a record speed accompanies him to the door. His legs give out as soon as he reaches it, falling forward into the darkness outside. He crashes into the wall, hearing, feeling something pop. The hyperventilation fogs up his mind, but he can focus enough to realize that his wrist is _still fucking burning._

Yixing yanks at the bracelet, trying to tear it off of him while jumping up to distance himself from the room as much as he can. “Stop! _Stop!_ I’m out! I’M OUT!” He shouts like a madman. If the bracelet listened last time, it will this time. “Stop! _PLEASE!”_ He tries to ignore what must've been his knee that popped as he sprints down the hall, away from the room, not ceasing until the fire goes away.

When he's far enough that he's sure the burn isn’t active anymore, Yixing stops, collapsing into the wall. His chest heaves. It hurts _so_ much. _Too_ much. 

As fast as it had come, the adrenaline quickly disappears. Excruciation takes the opportunity, running up and down his body, licking flames through his joints and stabbing daggers through his muscles. It’s not long before he can’t even feel his right arm, only knowing it’s still functioning by the blood spilling out onto the floor, not only from his palm, but his wrist, too.

His wrist... he can't tell how much damage it is through all of the red, but he knows he can't feel it anymore and that the skin at the sides of the wristband is charred; _black._

The lack of external pain definitely doesn't hinder the internal. His panicked sobbing makes it difficult to breathe, mucus clogging his nose and his throat burning whenever he takes a breath. It's happened so fast that his stomach churns, insides bubbling like the blood he can see under the bracelet, and is he going to throw up? He feels too hazy to throw up. He wipes under his eyes, picking up a mixture of sweat and tears.

 _Calm down, calm down, calm down,_ Yixing repeats in his head, but he’s talking more to his body than to his mind. He absolutely _should_ be freaked out. However, freaking out will only exacerbate his current stage. Hence, he tries to do something he has never done before and shuts off his mind, like he’s asleep.

It doesn’t work.

He has to go find someone. He soon realizes he physically can’t use his right arm, so he lifts it with his left to look at the bracelet. He _has_ to get this thing off. It can kill him. It’s going to fucking kill him. He taps the black screen, a flimsy hope of seeing something like _error: bracelet malfunctioning, contact RF_05 immediately,_ but all he gets is:

 _WELCOME, AGENT LAY. 18:07:52EXT_

Fuck this. Fuck Agent Lay. Fuck Agent Lay, who wasn’t supposed to be there, who was nearly killed. This isn’t okay. This shouldn’t be the treatment of someone meant to save the universe. It _can’t_ be. Everything so far has seemed like a technological paradise, but this… this… there’s something seriously wrong. It sends a petrifying chill deep down to his core, to think that upon just getting the hang of this new world, there’s something sinister he has no idea about. Why him?! Yixing was _just_ getting a better life on Earth. Earth. He wants to go home. He can't do this. He has to go home. 

But, as he has quickly learned, it’s not like he can do anything about it. About fucking _anything._ Maybe he should just give up. Sit here, endure the agony, keep trying to breathe for a minute. Or five. Or ten… 

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Eventually, the blood that hadn't boiled away from the heat hardens into a lighter red. The cut on his palm stops leaking and Yixing has cried so much he feels lightheaded. So much _feeling_ surged in such a short time. 

He wipes his face with his shirt. _Come on, get up, tell someone,_ he thinks. The inferno of what he can still feel has subsided, leaving glowing coals to slowly cool. There's a pool of blood around his wrist and he feels a little lightheaded. He has to go to somebody, because Yixing is one hundred percent sure this is _not_ part of any protocol. Unless there is something else EXO isn’t telling him along with the missing members, such as some sort of torture-punishment system other than the bracelets, this can’t be normal. It's not normal that he can't feel his wrist any longer. He sniffles, wiping his blurry eyes to look down the hallway. Nobody in sight, of course. Sometimes, it’s as if he’s the only one really here. 

_No, that’s incorrect,_ _don’t think that way,_ he stands up, using the wall for support. It’s only normal that he is a mess compared to everyone else; that these people seem to live easily. They were just like him, months ago, years ago. He will adapt. He will be okay. Someday. Once he gets to the bottom of everything. Yixing goes in the direction of the dormitories, the only place he really knows, figuring he'll on the way find either A) the medical unit, or B) another person to direct him to the medical unit. An utter exhaustion like never before almost convinces him to just go straight to bed, but he knows if his wrist has gone _numb_ then he needs medical attention right away. 

It takes a while, especially with every sensing part of his body in agony, but he makes it to the dormitories. A short consideration of EXO-K versus EXO-M and Yixing decides the former hosts members pertaining more helpful to his situation. Just as he’s about to enter, though, he spots someone out of the corner of his eye.

Down the hallway a little, a black-haired either Minseok or Junmyeon enters a room. Yixing takes a chance, hoping that it’s the latter because although both may think he’s crazy(?), Junmyeon isn't a sadist and is weirdly kind and will help him right away. 

He hadn’t realized this room was here before. With a normal door, it’s a small office space, cozy with a couple large desks and chairs and a couch. Stationary items sparsely line the shelves, but the tables are clear. A dim yellowish light comes from above, illuminating Junmyeon who is currently leaning over some sort of paper on the far desk. Yixing manages to push all the wow-he-looks-really-tiny-in-that-sweater thoughts away (read: for later) as he enters silently, then shutting the door not-so-silently.

Junmyeon turns, but this time, he’s not smiling. He must see how bad Yixing looks.

“Jun–“

“Yixing.” Junmyeon’s voice is serious, piling yet another concern onto Yixing’s worries. He meets his eyes, then picking up whatever it is he was looking at. He holds the paper up. “What’s this?”

Even though he squints, Yixing still can’t see it clearly. It's too dark. “I don’t know, but–“

Suddenly, he’s electrocuted.

Yixing gasps, partially from pain and partially from surprise. It's the weirdest thing because opposite to the last umpteen times he has been shocked, it's his wrist that feels it the least. That doesn't feel it _at_ _all._ Yet the pain everywhere else sends him stumbling onto a table and breaks his weak infrastructure; tears brim at his eyes again. But he won't cry. Not here. 

This becomes even harder when Junmyeon’s hand is suddenly on his shoulder, almost as if inviting him to start sobbing; cruelty with good intention. Yixing looks up, and is surprised to still see the same look on Junmyeon’s face: dismay. Is he okay? What’s wrong? What fucking _else_ is wrong? He then backs up, handing Yixing the paper he had just been looking at.

“Could you explain that?”

The way he says it sounds like a stern parent to a misbehaved child. What could Yixing have possibly done, though? But according to the bracelet, he knows what this is. He needs to get this off. It’s acting up.

Or maybe not.

In semi-neat Korean, the crumpled up paper reads:

_Baekhyun: unbearable_

_Jongdae: obnoxious_

_Jongin: dumb_

_Sehun: too inse_

_Chanyeol:_

_Kyungsoo:_

_Minseok:_

_Joonmyeon:_

Yixing’s jaw drops, breath nearly stopping. This is his, but it’s not. It’s impossible. Firstly, he wrote it in _Mandarin,_ and secondly, he had thrown it away! Yet it’s word for word, in _his_ handwriting, with even the half-finished character at Sehun’s. He lifts his eyes to Junmyeon again, who still has the same countenance. Suddenly, Yixing feels ashamed. He shouldn’t have done this. It was foolish; childish. He knew he shouldn’t have. That’s why he had thrown it away, though! Why is it here?! Why is it different?! This isn’t normal. Everything is turning upside down.

“This... this isn’t mine–“ When he’s shocked again, Yixing tenses up, trying to muster through it. Why is this happening?!– No, bracelet problems later. He _needs_ to explain. He can’t have Junmyeon think this about him. He just can’t. As he takes a shaky breath, he sees Junmyeon’s hands reach out, but suddenly retract as they’re about to touch. Like Yixing’s something gross.

It hurts more than it should.

“It has every name but yours on it.” Junmyeon’s voice is flat with an underlay of disappointment. “I checked the handwriting with RF, and it seems to be yours considering other things you’ve written.” But Yixing hasn’t written _anything_ else here! Does RF have every single piece of information about him?! If there’s something wrong with his bracelet, there might be something wrong with RF, too. “I’m sorry, but I have to believe the facts.”

When Junmyeon's eyes meet his, Yixing can’t stand it. He looks to the ground. Something that’s not one of his innumerable injuries stings when the other sighs.

“I didn’t think you were like this, Yixing… I don’t know what the satisfaction is in writing a _burn book_ for us, but it’s not my concern.” The emphasis especially pisses Yixing off, because Junmyeon makes it sound like it’s stupid– because it is, of course, he knows, yet he had _still_ done it! “And I heard you hurt Baekhyun pretty badly earlier... not cool. He’s going to be out for a couple days. You really shouldn’t use violence to solve your problems. I know that you may be–“

“Shut up.” Yixing mutters, immediately regretting it when Junmyeon goes quiet.

It’s just that Yixing knows what he’s going to say. It’s that Yixing _knows_ all of this. Writing it was idiotic. And hitting Baekhyun– well, no, he still stands by his action, but in front of Junmyeon he can’t help but feel a little regret. Maybe a long personally attacking monologue he should have tried before violence. Or heck, even going to Junmyeon again. Yixing knows all of this. He can’t believe he did that note. He feels... _stupid._ He’s infuriated with himself, like the people in the movies who do all of those dumb things because of the chemicals in their brain telling them to, but it’s a whole lot worse. Frustrated tears burn at his eyes. Yixing tells himself he’s immune, above acting idiotic for the sake of his _feelings,_ yet all this has happened. Why isn’t he invincible anymore?

Junmyeon has backed up a step. Why is that? Does he think Yixing will hit _him,_ or something?

“I just want you to understand what you’ve done, and to understand yourself… I know this is really hard, but please, don’t put your feelings above everyone else’s. It’s selfish–“

“It’s _individualism,_ Junmyeon.” Yixing snaps. He also knows he shouldn't continue, but there’s a desire in his chest he can’t ignore. He’ll feel better, after this, because the dialogue comes out almost naturally. As if it’s been waiting. This means it must be right. “I didn’t _ask_ to be here. I’m just trying to look out for myself, and I don’t need your sympathy bullshit to help… I know it’s fake, so why don’t you just stop? I don’t even really _know_ you people. Before this, I had nothing to do with you. So why should I care if your _feelings are hurt?”_

Then, amidst Junmyeon’s stunned silence, Yixing lifts up his wrist, blood splayed in hardened streaks. “Want to check? Want to see if I’m lying or not, because I’m not trusted even with a fucking _death contraption_ on my wrist? How am I supposed to return your ‘instant best friendship’ philosophy if it’s not given in the first place?” He does realize that he hasn’t noticed Junmyeon check his wrist even once, but it’s not just him Yixing’s talking about. 

“... What happened to your wrist? Your– your palm?” Despite everything he had just said, Junmyeon’s voice still holds concern. He’s so kind, yet Yixing’s giving this up. Giving him up. But he can’t stop now.

“It doesn’t matter.” Yixing drops his wrist. “It doesn’t matter anymore.” He doesn't know why he says it, but if he's not shocked for it, maybe it's true. Maybe he should just stop trying. If Junmyeon won’t believe him with the letter, he won’t believe him with this. His tirade has left him more and more hopeless. More and more empty. Where is the satisfaction? When is it coming? “Don’t worry about me. I’m a _stranger.”_

Junmyeon stares at him for what has to be at least ten seconds. Yixing keeps his eyes on the floor. He’s wearing the same nikes as him. Does everyone have the same nikes here?

Eventually, a reply comes. “If that’s how you feel…” Junmyeon takes slow steps past him to the door. “Then I’m sorry for being so intrusive.” 

And it shuts and Yixing becomes alone.

But he can finally _breathe_ again. He looks back up, scanning the office. He looks to the letter in his hand. He looks to the sofa. He looks to the door, and with the few seconds of incubation, it dawns upon him:

He just did something _really_ bad.

He shouldn’t have done that. He shouldn’t have done that. Yixing immediately rushes to the door, but stops at the handle. He can’t go chasing after Junmyeon, for god’s sake! He’ll have no idea what to say! Instead, he turns around, back to the door as he sinks to the ground in defeat. 

He shouldn’t have done that.

Yixing was wrong. This doesn’t feel good. There was satisfaction in the beginning, finally having gotten to say what’s been shoved down his throat for weeks. Finally speaking on his injustice; but from there, it went downhill. It got to the point where he felt more embarrassed to say _I take that back_ than to continue in a spiral where he’d eventually hurt Junmyeon far past the point of taking anything back. 

Yet, did he not just say: _Why should I care if your feelings are hurt?_

He shouldn’t have done that. Why did he do that?

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Yixing finds the medical unit without any help. However, he's too drained to be happy about it. 

As he's sitting on the table, having something with metal arms like RD_06 wash and wrap some sort of techno-bandage around his wound, he stares at the floor and does the only thing he really can and just thinks.

Although his anger is gone, what he had anticipated doesn’t come. The absence of the emotion doesn’t open room for contentedness. It just leaves a black pit in its wake. He’s only further frustrated with himself because maybe, sometimes, it’s not all black and white. Maybe he can’t just _choose_ to alleviate his anger for happiness.

Maybe, instead of chemicals that come in and out, emotions are more like a spectrum. A spectrum in that it is always present, but the emotion is on different parts of it. Sometimes anger is on the lower side of the spectrum, where it is in a dormant state and Yixing will judge he is perfectly fine. But then it goes to the high side, where the chemicals _then_ come into play and serotonin and adrenaline and noradrenaline release and he has trouble dictating his actions. Then, from there, anger changes form (frustration) and it brings along sadness and regret; like one gear turning another, and that one another, and it’s suddenly the butterfly effect. Maybe that’s what happens instead of the entering and leaving chemicals, because if that were true, Yixing wouldn’t be feeling this shitty right now. 

So he knows why he did it. He did it because he was in a bad state from the event(s) prior and he simply couldn’t handle it all. Every spectrum was somewhere that tempted him beyond control. So much has happened in so little time and now he's empty; exhausted. He doesn’t feel the motive to even try anymore. If he could just wither away here… 

_It's a third degree burn. Those nerves will never come back... Why? Why's it doing this to me? What will I say next to Junmyeon? How will I fix this? How will I tell him, or just anybody, about the incident, why my wrist is like this? Why did it happen? Why do I still feel attracted to Junmyeon if I just took out all of my anger on him? Who do I go to? Am I all alone now? Who's Yifan and the two others? What’s RD_06? Sister? CF? Vermillion? Legacy?_ all linger in his brain, yet they’re like clouds: too high to catch. Because there’s just _so much_ , he cannot imagine a future, but rather that time is stopped, right here, in this overwhelming place, and all he has to do is go to sleep and it’ll be better in the morning. 

But he knows it won’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mysterious music intensifies OOOOHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO
> 
> hi I am sorry for a day late upload I will probably not do it again hopefully you are still here 
> 
> ok whewwwww we really went from 0 to 100 real fast I hope nobody has whiplash!! if so here is an ice pack get well soon xoxo


	19. Surrender to Inadequacy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing refuses to have that very long and frustrating time full of half-said words and misunderstandings to make things up with Junmyeon.

**DESPITE ALL** the odds: three hours of sparring and weightlifting with Minseok, an hour of wandering around the spaceship to find a room where he’s then almost killed by his bracelet, sore muscles (from the two former) to the point of ache and significant blood loss and several electrocutions, stressing about the three missing members and everything else he doesn’t know, having Junmyeon scorn him for a letter that he did but did not write, and a frustration and self-disappointment like never before… Yixing still can’t sleep. 

It almost inclines him to start believing in something other than Randomness, because he’s so physically and mentally exhausted that he had thought as soon as his head hit the pillow he would pass out. Yet, he suddenly became restless. The bed is soft, too, prompting him for sleep, but Yixing just _can’t_. _It's a third degree burn. Those nerves will never come back... Why? Why's it doing this to me? What will I say next to Junmyeon? How will I fix this? How will I tell him, or just anybody, about the incident, why my wrist is like this? Why did it happen? Why do I still feel attracted to Junmyeon if I just took out all of my anger on him? Who do I go to? Am I all alone now? Who's Yifan and the two others? What’s RD_06? Sister? CF? Vermillion? Legacy?_ all linger in his brain, and now they’re like fog: too low to ignore. This is accompanied by the strong aches everywhere. Stress, worry, stress, question, pain, night sweats, stress, plan, fix occupy the hours of the night. Jongdae comes in the EXO-M dorm first, flopping right asleep with a mere ‘night, Xing’. Sehun and Minseok come together, having quiet conversation before retiring to bed as well. They all think Yixing’s asleep, and honestly, he’d think he would be asleep, too, but here he is. Not asleep.

Emotions have subsided, spectrums have reset, and he thinks more clearly. He knows that he has dug himself into some pretty deep shit with Junmyeon, but it’s not impossible to repent (he just hopes dearly that nobody is planning to do things with him like they had Sehun– probably not, though. Only _some_ people here know what an asshole he is). Yixing can and will make things up with him, and even Baekhyun too, if it matters that much. He will do this by apologizing and telling the truth. Although Yixing _was_ being truthful in his tirade, it wasn’t all of the truths. It was only the negatives; he had thrown everything under a dark red light, exacerbated by harsh wording and enunciations. In his apology, he will say he’s sorry, because Yixing genuinely is (the look on Junmyeon’s face...), and he will tell the whole truth whilst rationalizing what he had last said. This works in the movies where the characters are going through emotional complications, so maybe it will work in the reality where the characters are going through emotional complications. 

It’s just a matter of when. Because if Yixing’s not wrong (which he _usually_ is not– ignore all events in the past forty-eight hours), Junmyeon will be trying to avoid him. Yixing knows he hurt him. Maybe even more than he had hurt himself. He didn’t miss the initial disappointed look on his face, the deafening silence after his dialogue, how his eyes widened when Yixing lifted his wrist, the way his lips quivered as he was leaving. Contrary to the movies, Yixing does absolutely _not_ want to wait a very long and frustrating time full of half-said words and misunderstandings to make things up with Junmyeon. He wants it to happen as soon as possible. So when should he do it? Where does Junmyeon go in the mornings? What is his schedule? When–

Wait… why not just go now? 

The great idea lifts Yixing up onto his elbows. Though _01:32:43EXT_ doesn’t seem like the greatest time to go serenade a whole apology to someone, it can’t end up being _that_ bad. Besides, considering all of EXO was just having a three-AM dinner, Yixing doesn’t think diurnal schedules are that important here. There is always every other hour of the day to sleep and not attend your schedules (not based on real example). 

The difficult part of this though, Yixing realizes as he’s standing outside of the EXO-K dormitory, door ajar, is waking up _only_ Junmyeon and then convincing him to come somewhere outside of the dormitory with _him_ so he can then tell him he regrets calling him a stranger and telling him to fuck off. It’s almost as if he can hear his voice: _Yixing, what the hell are you doing?_

_“Yixing, what the hell are you doing?”_

“Holy shit!” Yixing flinches, whipping around to _actually be faced with Junmyeon right there._ He squints, trying to verify the man standing three feet away as if he is twenty feet away. What the hell is _he_ doing?! It’s one in the morning! 

_“Shh!”_ Junmyeon’s eyes widen slightly as he puts a finger to his lips. He continues in a low voice. _“People are sleeping. Why are you–“_ Suddenly, he stops himself. _“No, never mind. Goodnight...”_

As he goes to walk past him, Yixing stands in his way. “No–“ 

_“Shh!”_

_“No.”_ Yixing whispers, face heating up. _“I need to talk to you. Right now. Please.”_

Junmyeon’s eyes flicker up to his and despite the current animosity, Yixing still feels his chest clench. 

_“Alright.”_ He nods after a moment, turning around. _“Follow me.”_

Beyond relieved Yixing follows him down the hall, back into the same office. Perhaps not the best setting correlation-wise, but it is homey and has a sofa perfect for long apologies. Again, despite the current animosity, Junmyeon still holds open the door for him, shutting it behind him and flicking the dimmest light on.

“What is it?” Junmyeon now speaks in a normal tone, but his voice is husky from fatigue. Poor guy was probably just trying to take a midnight leak. 

And then he says it.

“I’m sorry.”

Oh. That was kind of lame… He thought that would have a lot more impact.

“Like, really sorry.”

Junmyeon stares at him, expression unreadable partially because it’s dark and partially because he only looks tired. After a moment, he speaks. 

“... Is that all?”

No! That’s not all! But suddenly, Yixing finds it hard to speak. Maybe this whole apology and truth and opening up feelings that are not anger thing is a little harder than he had thought– or, at least, harder with Junmyeon actually right there and not just a figment of his imagination who forgave him immediately.

It finally comes out just as Junmyeon turns to leave. “No!” 

He then turns back around slowly. Yixing’s glad for the darkness, because he can feel the heat radiating off of his face. Not only is he petty to Junmyeon, he’s also a speech-impaired mess.

 _Just speak your mind, it’s not that fucking hard, Yixing._

Junmyeon quirks an expectant brow, “What else do you have to say?”

“A lot. I… have a lot to say. Can I explain myself so you don’t leave on a misunderstanding and then there’s this tension between us that’s only solved a long time later when I finally explain to you what I could explain right now?”

Yixing swears the corner of Junmyeon’s lip moves. Swears! 

“Go ahead.”

“Okay...” Yixing thinks of where to start, and realizes that with all of these things he has to cover, he definitely doesn’t want to do it while standing. “Can we sit down? This might take awhile.” 

“Sure.” Junmyeon accepts, and Yixing feels such a relief when he hears the warm-kind-Junmyeon tone again. He makes a beeline for the couch, sitting with his back against one of the arms. Junmyeon does the same opposite to him.

“Okay, so…” How come finding the right words is so hard _now?_ It was so easy when he was angry! They were perfectly hurtful! 

He should start with the main thing, he decides: the paper. However, he’ll have to be careful to tell the truth– the truth the bracelet is telling him. Actually, perhaps he should just tell him _why_ he wrote it.

“I did write it…” _But in Mandarin, and not on that paper, and I threw it away and literally watched it burn to nothing._ “It was a couple weeks ago. It was after the first training session I had where everyone was there. I did it because I felt frustrated towards myself for being so useless compared to you all. Usually my lack of athleticism never bothers me but... in that situation it did. Does. So I took out that frustration in self validation which included finding a flaw that wasn’t athleticism in everyone else so I knew that I had at least one thing better than them because that’s often a way people find self-confidence, and I thought that writing it down would probably make me feel better so I wrote it down but then it didn’t feel better and I just felt dumb so I–“

Yixing stops himself, glancing at his bracelet. The underlaying white bandage. _Did_ he throw it away? 

“Yeah. That happened…” He swallows the indignance. Right now, it’s not about how Junmyeon got a hold of it. It’s about why Yixing did it. It’s about owning up to his actions. 

When the other doesn’t speak, Yixing feels the need to continue. Like he has to say everything in one breath. “And I’m sorry I told you to shut up earlier. It’s because I already know. I already _know_ writing that was childish, I _know_ violence on Baekhyun wasn’t the… _best_ option. I know all of this stuff and when you were saying it out loud it made me sound just so... stupid. It’s not like me.

“And I think… I think it’s because I feel like I don’t have control over anything anymore, that I’m being like this.” He cringes when he says it, quickly continuing before any follow-up questions, “But anyways, most of you are actually good people. This includes you. You're not a stranger to me. And your best friendship philosophy is actually a great idea and makes things much more practical. I was just… I had a shitty day. Frustration took over. I know it hurt you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean most of it to the extent that I had said it at. And I’m being wordy and specific rather than eloquent because I’m afraid I’ll be shocked. I’m sorry, Junmyeon. I’m really not like that. It was out of character.”

Yixing suddenly has the urge to fiddle with the drawstring of his sweatpants. He unties it, then tying it back into a double knot, then making it too tight so he has to use his nail to get it undone, then Junmyeon finally says something: 

“That’s what I had thought…” He says quietly, and Yixing looks up because _which_ part of his spiel is he referencing exactly?

“About the out of character.” Junmyeon answers for him. “You really don’t seem like that kind of person… but I get it. Being in a situation like this makes you go crazy and do all sorts of crazy things. I’m just glad you’re owning up to it.”

“'Just'?” Yixing questions the word. “Does that mean I am forgiven or that there is an emotional probation until you can be nice to me again?”

Junmyeon blinks.

“Wow, you’re blunt, aren’t you.” He chuckles quietly, and Yixing isn't sure whether it's out of mirth or disappointment.

So he assumes the worst. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't mean to downplay anything, I just want to solve the problem as soon as possible. Because I care. And, well, I think you understand me…?” 

When Junmyeon nods in understanding, a weight is lifted off his chest. 

"I mean, I don’t see why not. You’re not a bad person. You had your reasons. And you regret it and apologized.”

“... Okay, so we’re good?” 

“Yes.” Junmyeon smiles. “We’re good.”

And Yixing finds himself smiling too. 

“Also…” Junmyeon continues, his head going down for a moment. “I don’t want to be intruding, but you yourself just said we aren’t strangers. So, I just want to say,” He looks back up, “don’t feel useless. Athleticism doesn’t make you the best. It’s about everything altogether. And you’re wicked smart. And new. So don’t feel useless. You’re really not.”

That’s nice and all, but it’s not just that. It’s never been _just_ that. Suddenly, Yixing feels unsatisfied. He doesn’t want to just explain and apologize to Junmyeon. He also wants to tell him more. With this, he realizes something. He doesn’t just like Junmyeon because he’s nice and he has a crush on him. He also likes Junmyeon because he _needs_ him. He needs him because Junmyeon is a huge help to the burden of everything. Because Junmyeon is smart and understands and relates and maybe, just _maybe_ opening up to a person other than Namjoon and occasionally his mother will be… worth it?

“Can I, like, say more?” Yixing asks.

Junmyeon smiles a comforting smile. He's really good at those. “Of course. Yixing, don’t _ever_ feel like you can’t say stuff to me. Seriously. I care about you and I don’t want anything like this to happen ever again. So vent whatever, whenever you need. And hopefully I can vent to you whenever I need.”

The last part catches him off guard. “To _me?”_

“Well, yeah,” He says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “we’re friends, aren’t we?”

Suddenly, Yixing feels a thousand times more content to be sitting with this man. It’s nice to know that Junmyeon doesn’t think of him as a charity case, isn’t dreading him like a babysitter would an unruly child, isn’t just saying this because he’s the leader and is obligated to. Or he’s a really good actor.

“Yi–”

“Yeah, sorry.” He quickly interrupts. “Yes. Friends. Us. I’m just surprised, because I’d think you’d rather vent to someone else here that you’re closer with. Unless you just said that out of politeness.”

“No no no, I meant it.” Junmyeon’s looking down again, “Just because I’ve been with the others longer doesn’t mean they’d be better. Like, you’re really emotionally smart, and I’d rather talk to you about stuff, to be honest. And I trust you.”

It’s weird, because not even twelve hours ago Yixing was telling him he was a stranger. 

“Thanks.” Is all he says because it’s how he feels. Maybe along with a blush, but that’s not important.

“So anyways, what is it?”

Oh, right. His emotional turmoil.

“Right, so… I…” Suddenly, it gets awkward. He hasn’t done this in a while. He’s rusty– no, not even: he’s literally frozen all over. Junmyeon is patient, though.

“I guess it’s not just, back to the former conversation, _that:_ I don’t feel like shit only because of the athleticism part, it’s never been just that part. I also feel inadequate in general, and I guess that usually wouldn’t bother me but here it does. Is… On the mission– I never got to telling you about it, but I really started feeling like shit after the mission. I did close to nothing the whole time and when something actually important came up, I couldn’t help in _any_ way. And they…”

Yixing reddens a little, because it’s embarrassing to be complaining about this, as if he’s a bullied child. 

“And I was yelled at for being useless and irresponsible and made fun of, especially by Baekhyun– Baekhyun’s– he’s really been making this hard for me. He never takes me seriously and makes jokes to my expense and then tells me I’m being sensitive and that _really_ gets on my nerves… so that’s also why I hurt him. It felt like the only thing I could do to get him to actually listen when I tell him to stop, that I’m serious… and it usually wouldn’t hurt me. He wouldn’t. They wouldn’t. All of this wouldn’t. But it does, here. And they’re right, I have been lazy and I am inadequate and I know this but it’s just _so unfair.”_

Junmyeon is still looking at him, still paying attention, and Yixing begins to speak faster because he’s not sure how long he’ll have this comfort for.

“Because I had everything figured out back on Earth. And I had just graduated highschool. My life was going to be great. And then I get kidnapped and brought to this place that goes against _logic. Logic!_ The basis for how I thought everything in the universe worked! That basically ruined everything, because now I can be _wrong_ about things and I don’t like that because now I have a very weak sense of security and so things inflict emotional damage more easily like stated and then I do out of character things like experienced and I really, _really_ don’t like it. I know it’s been awhile… but I still don’t want to accept this.”

After a pause, Junmyeon speaks. “Accept what? If– if you’re comfortable with saying…” 

This is the part where Yixing becomes insecure, because he’s basically fully letting Junmyeon into his mind. This is the part it’ll hurt to say. Where he feels that pang in his chest and everything following is a shade darker. Yet, Junmyeon is asking. He’s listening. And maybe after this Yixing will _actually_ feel better. 

“I… don’t want to accept that I’m so goddamn incompetent– I don’t want to do things I’m not good at. It’s embarrassing. Yet I’m forced to. I don’t want to accept that I’m afraid of failure– I hate working hard. Especially at things I don’t want to do, because it’s for nothing. Yet I’m forced to. And… I don’t want to accept that I may be more dumb and sensitive than I had originally – for the last nineteen years – thought and that the shit these people say actually gets to me. That it’s hurting me. That all these fucking _feelings_ I’ve been invincible to for so long are suddenly taking over me? I really thought I was better than this...

“It’s as if everything and everyone here just wants me to _suffer.”_

Yixing then looks up from his sweats. Junmyeon’s face is contorted in thought, processing everything he had just said...

_Everything he had just said._

Holy shit. 

No, Yixing was wrong. This does absolutely not feel better. This feels humiliating. Suddenly, he feels so, so weak. And he had thought disassociation from Junmyeon was the end. No, _this_ is. Because this is true information Junmyeon will never forget unless he gets amnesia or something, and he can’t pull the _haha just kidding I’m fine_ because then the lie will be shocked right out of him.

He shouldn’t have done that. 

“Fuck, I’m sorry. That sounded really dramatic. That _was_ really dramatic. I didn’t mean to say all of that. This was too personal. I’m sorry. It’s almost two in the morning and I’m not thinking straight. I’m not okay, but it’s my problem. Not yours. Stop being so nice, Junmyeon. You’re not my therapist.” Junmyeon looks up at him, making Yixing panic even more despite his innocent eyes. “Stop that. I’m not a twelve year old girl who needs to _vent_ her _feelings._ I…”

He stands up, heading to the door. “Please forget all of this. Or just pretend you don’t know whenever I’m around so it’s not awkward. I’m sorry I put that burden on you, you probably already have so much as the leader. Goodnight–“ 

Just as Yixing’s about to exit, his arm is grabbed. Before he can react, Junmyeon is off the couch, hands going up to cup his shoulders.

“Yixing, wait.” Junmyeon’s grip loosens, hands sliding slightly down his arms. It’s purely casual, but practically makes him lose focus. The way he stares at him suddenly makes Yixing feel very panicked and he _really_ just wants to leave but his feet won’t move.

“Don’t…” Junmyeon’s eyes dart to the floor again, “Don’t say that. Don’t think that. Your feelings are valid.” Oh _god,_ the _your feelings are valid_ card. Yixing must be looking like a _real_ mess. Not that he isn’t. “So… you shouldn’t run away from them. Running away never works.”

It’s not until Junmyeon says it that Yixing realizes that’s _exactly_ what he’s doing. Running away from the only comfort he’ll receive, the only time he’ll confront how he’s feeling. 

Junmyeon then takes a step back, hands coming off him as he opens his arms slightly.

“Give me a hug, instead.”

“... Okay.” Yixing won’t pass up a free hug (twice in one day– nice). He tentatively leans forward, lifting his arms to weakly wrap around Junmyeon’s back. As soon as he’s in, Junmyeon tightens the embrace, letting out a sigh. For some reason, he's very warm. So _this_ is what Junmyeon hugs feel like. They’re even better than Kyungsoo hugs, because Junmyeon is a little taller so Yixing’s head can rest comfortably on his shoulder and also because Yixing likes him romantically or something. Tacitly, both remain in the embrace. No one seems to want to leave.

Suddenly, Yixing’s eyes water.

“Hey…” Junmyeon says after a sniffle. “Are you crying?”

Twice in one day– nice. 

“Yes.” Yixing answers, squeezing his eyes shut. Globules of everything run down his cheeks, wetting Junmyeon’s shirt. “Sorry.” 

_“Yixing.”_ The voice is so endearing that it brings a whole new wave of tears. Junmyeon gently breaks the hug, holding him out arm’s length and looking at him with worried eyes, his bottom lip jutting out slightly. At this, Yixing can’t hold back a sob. He hiccups, hanging his head so his tears fall straight to the floor. Heck, why is he crying _now?!_ Why not _during_ that whole pathos of a speech he had just given? Was it because he was saving it for his pillow?

“Don’t be sorry about _crying.”_ There are then hands on him, angling his face up to wipe at his cheeks. Yixing doesn’t get why he does that, because it’s not going to make him stop crying, but it feels nice. 

“But– but I am… because then you probably feel bad… just, sorry.” He sniffles, looking up, “It all sounded really sad. I mean– I– I am sad, clearly, but that sounds like I won’t be okay. I– I will be okay. Don’t be– be fooled. I just look sad.” He says this as he chokes on a sob, bringing a hand up to wipe his eyes.

Junmyeon does this half scoff half chuckle thing, mumbling something under his breath.

“Come on, let’s sit down.”

He leads him to the couch. This time, they sit together. Yixing stares forward at the wall, sinking into the seat.

“It’s a lot.” He mumbles, wiping his eyes.

“Trust me, I know.” Junmyeon says. They’re sitting close, shoulders touching, thighs grazing. Warmth fills the cross-space.

“It gets better, Yixing.”

“Inevitably.”

“And stop acting like I’m obligated to be here for you. I’m not. I _want_ to be here. And you’re _not_ a burden. Nowhere near it. Nowhere even far away from it. Not on the spectrum. If you hadn’t noticed, I was the one who pursued you in the first place. I really care about you… a lot…” These words permeate warmth in Yixing’s chest. His heart? But hearts don’t feel unless it’s cardiac arrest?

Perhaps it’s the _1-am-a-mess-and-I-just-shared-my-feelings-so-one-more-icky-emotional-thing-won’t-hurt_ , but Yixing finds himself saying, “Me too. Sorry for keeping–”

“Yah, stop apologizing to me and just take the comfort, Zhang Yixing.” 

_“Okay.”_ Zhang Yixing replies in a tiny voice. He takes the opportunity to oblige and slowly wrap around Junmyeon’s arm, leaning into his shoulder. Everything is tense in his chest for a second before Yixing is certain Junmyeon doesn’t mind, and then he lets himself relax.

After a couple moments, Yixing feels something on his right hand. Junmyeon’s fingers gently open his closed fist, revealing the scar on his palm. A liquid bandage gives full view to the deep red laceration. 

“Yixing…?” He questions, and Yixing becomes tense again. Especially when Junmyeon’s hand travels up to his wrist. 

Yixing flinches before he’s even touched.

“Sorry, sorry!” Junmyeon says hastily, eyes a bit widened as he pulls back, as Yixing pulls back, as they separate. Yixing suddenly feels cold.

“Just…” Curious eyes graze his wrist. “What happened? Why– why was it all bloody earlier?”

As if he has no idea what happened, Yixing stares at his wrist too. He genuinely does not know what to answer. If he _hadn’t_ discarded the letter, _had_ he went somewhere he 'wasn't supposed to be' and gotten burned by the bracelet?

“I’m sorry,” Junmyeon then says out of nowhere, “I'm so sorry. I should’ve helped earlier. It looked really bad. I was just really hurt at what you said, but that doesn’t excuse–”

“I would’ve left too, it’s okay.” Yixing brushes him off. “And it’s… I went… there was…” Different scenarios pop in his head not because he can’t remember, but because he doesn’t know what the wristband wants.

“I was burned. And cut.” He stops breathing in the couple seconds that follow. Fortunately, more do without any shock.

“How?” Junmyeon leans towards him, and Yixing can tell he's restraining himself from touching it. “And especially right there…? _Under_ the bracelet?”

Strange how it doesn’t occur to him that it could’ve been the bracelet itself.

“The…” Yixing can’t bring himself to say it. He doesn't want to be electrocuted. He doesn’t know why he would be, but now he’s terrified to say anything mildly controversial; mildly against this place. It’s difficult, because Junmyeon looks up at him in the most caring way, and so badly does Yixing want to just tell him, but the blockage in his throat stops him. The thing around his wrist stops him.

“It'll be alright. The bandage should protect it and let it heal in a month.” _Though I'll never be able to feel there again._ It's the kind of thing that reminds him this isn't all just a bad dream. 

Junmyeon gives him a strange look, but he doesn’t press. 

“Okay, then… well, are you planning on staying here for tonight?”

Yixing hadn’t thought of that. But now he is. Even if some of his stress is alleviated and his bed is more comfortable than this couch, he’d still rather be here with Junmyeon and Junmyeon only. “Yes.”

“Alright… then I’ll stay with you.” 

And obviously this is what Yixing was hoping for him to say, but guilt still comes, “You don’t have to, it’s okay.”

“What if I _want_ to?” At this, Yixing looks up. Junmyeon seems fully serious, lips pursed in a sort of pout, even.

A small spark ignites in his chest and Yixing smiles.

Merely this, in a way, compensates for the past month. It doesn’t make him adequate or stop the burning, but it does do one thing: it gives him hope. Junmyeon has made it clear that he’s here and he’s not going anywhere. Though he at first forced him into reluctant conversation, that night when Yixing was seconds from passing out, maybe it was worth it. Randomness is truly a saint for giving him someone like Junmyeon. Someone who hasn’t proved to be anything but perfect. It gives Yixing a new kind of L that’s not logic: Love. Even if it’s not the traditional established romantic type of _love,_ Yixing still feels it, and this sounds crazy, but maybe since he can’t use Logic here, he can use the Love.

“Then… thank you, Junmyeon. And you won’t have a lot of personal space.”

Suddenly, there’s a warmth. Junmyeon cuddles up to his side, grabbing his arm like he had him.

“Who said anything about personal space?” When Yixing is silent because his stomach flips, the question is quickly followed up by a loss of grip and, “Wait, you just did… aha, _sorry.”_

It’s the adorable way Junmyeon sheepishly backs away, eyes aimed down and cheeks a bit dark, that takes everything Yixing has to not coo.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind.” He says instead of _if you touch me I think I will combust but in a good way._

So then Junmyeon is back around his arm. It’s a moment before he says, “I’m just a really… touchy-feely person. Just tell me if it bothers you.”

“I’ve noticed...” 

It's good and bad, because Junmyeon’s touch, no matter how nonchalant, somehow lights tiny little fires of gold and makes his chest clench and heart race and cheeks heat and lift up in an uncontrollable smile, but in reality it’s just Junmyeon doing a bro-thing. And that’s all it is. A bro-thing. And it’s killing Yixing.

But the pros outweigh the cons, so Yixing reciprocates the relaxation and lets his head back onto Junmyeon’s shoulder. It’s not like he is going to kill him (that would be one real big plot twist, though).

“... And it doesn’t.” 

“Oh, okay, cool, great,” Junmyeon lets out a content hum, readjusting himself. “Goodnight, then, Xing. Feel better.”

_I already do._

All of the sudden, with dry eyes relieved from crying and body weighed down with comfortable exhaustion and Junmyeon here at his side, everything doesn’t feel so daunting anymore. The missing members, the RD_06 and Vermillion and RF 'sister', the bracelet glitch, the paper’s origin, and everything else becomes more of a _he’ll get to it_ rather than a _he has to solve this ASAP!_ For the first time in a long time, Yixing feels okay. Isn’t it strange, what somebody simply _being_ there does? It’s almost like an illusion.

 _Almost,_ because Junmyeon’s arm curling around him is too strong to be an illusion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mysterious music goes to sad music :((((((( but then happy music :)))))
> 
> so yixing has finally broke down, but at least it didn't end badly (idk about u but i consider jm cuddle a mega win). 
> 
> ok here is me talking author/technical abt this work skip if not interested: 
> 
> so plot wise with the story, I'd say this is the first breaking point for yix the protagonist. as referenced with my note in chapter 10, the story's very long and the beginning quarter/third (aka most of all of this) is more focused on the internal conflicts that led up to this sort of breakdown. you've probably noticed that the last couple chapters I've introduced the conflict of external factors, and as the story goes on those will become more important in regards to the actual main big thing with the story. 
> 
> I know I said I was 100% finished with this but I kind of meant that I was 100% finished with the /first draft/. as of right now, I'm doing some MAJOR editing of the final quarter of this story (like chapter 35-end) and if I'm being completely honest, the plot is kind of a... mess... maybe you'll agree by the time you get to the end of this, or maybe you won't because I'll have managed to fix it and make it all make sense. basically where I went wrong was I never followed any traditional story structure/plot mountain when I rly should have...
> 
> o well at least I can be funny sometimes LMAO
> 
> and on that note of me talking about the more technical part of this, junmyeon is not a mary sue I promise his flaws just lay in a more unconventional range (as opposed to character flaws being that arrogant rude bad boy with no heart)
> 
> and also most importantly.......................,,.,................... thank u for reading ≧◡≦


	20. Liberation (But Not That Much)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing hits his one month with EXO and receives a reward.

**THE NEXT** few days are spent lazing around. Although that’s not much different than what Yixing has been basically doing for the past month, this time he has justifiable reason to. The morning after, upon waking (Junmyeon was _still_ there!) and trying to get up, the extent of his injuries had fully settled, rendering it painful to move. So, back in the EXO-M dorm, Yixing wasn’t sick, but rather so beat up to the point where he slept for a day or two straight. At some time, Minseok had come in (but to talk to him– he comes in anyways because he also lives in the dorm) and apologized for being so harsh on him, that he had been overexcited. Yixing told him it was only partially his fault, but left it at that.

When awake, the worries slowly leak back into his system. He spends hours half-focused on the past events. But rather than fear, panic, he has to tell someone, something is seriously wrong, Yixing thinks through it critically. With such, he comes to the conclusions: it’s very unlikely this place is trying to endanger him in any way, so the bracelet must be malfunctioning; there must be some system in which the paper was taken out of the trash (due to suspected infiltration because of the foreign writing? He's the only Chinese here, so probably the only Mandarin speaker too); RD_06 along with RF’s ‘sister’ and ‘Vermillion’ is just information about this place that he has yet to learn; and the three member deal isn’t being disclosed to him because it will only overwhelm him. However, the secrecy just makes him want to know everything more, so it kind of backfired. He _is_ going to find out, but he won’t be so afraid anymore. He doesn’t need to be. He has Junmyeon.

On what he thinks is three days after his apology to aforementioned, Yixing wakes up to his bracelet. He opens his eyes to a bright white light shining in his face. Sleep still clinging to him, he shoves his arm under his pillow. Subsequently, the wristband starts to beep and the bed hardens.

“Fine.” His voice is groggy. He props himself up on an elbow, looking around the dorm to see nobody in it giving him a strange look because he had just talked to an object. He opens the device, seeing what it wants.

 _WELCOME, AGENT LAY. 09:49:50EXT_

_**RF_05** HAS A _ _MESSAGE_ _FOR YOU!_

He taps on the underlined word, and then the text changes:

_9:48:24EXT , FROM_ **_RF_05_ ** : Hello, Agent Lay. As of yesterday at 23:01:32, you have been here for exactly thirty days. This means you will have the anti-deceit function in your wristband deactivated. I have been trying to tell you this since yesterday at 23:01:32. You are a heavy sleeper. Report to **RF05H_5281** as soon as possible. 

Suddenly, Yixing is wide awake.

He shoots up out of bed, – accidentally smacking his head off the wall and – scrambling down the ladder. He doesn’t even bother with shoes as he rushes out of the door, practically jogging in the direction of RF’s room. This quickly stops, though, as ache starts to settle in and Yixing curses Minseok. Like always, the hallway is bright, but silent and empty. It’s stranger to see someone than not. It’s saddening how he can now recognize things like this, because it means he is accustoming which means he has been here far too long.

Too long: a _month._ A whole thirty days. Yet, Yixing feels like he just got here, and not in the good way. In the I-still-don’t-know-what’s-going-on way. What is going on back at home? Is his mother starting to miss him? Or is she still enjoying his absence? It has got to be noticed by now. Are the police investigating his case? Maybe they’ll find that screwdriver in his suitcase and pin him to be a runaway murderer. Did Namjoon receive that email? No, don’t think about that. That makes him anxious. 

As Yixing passes the medical unit, a voice startles him:

 _“Yixing?!_ Is that you?!”

Because this is that velvety voice he loathes, Yixing only stops for a brief moment to process, and then speeds up. Now he’s jogging again. This turns into a sprint once he hears his name called again.

“Yo! Wait up!”

Yixing knows that RF’s room is up here, somewhere, so he will be fine hiding for a little bit. Right now, he’s thankful he didn’t wear shoes, because his socks sprinting down the hallway are practically silent, albeit there’s a slight hesitancy of balance. He swerves around a corner into one of the smaller hallways, backing up into a perfectly positioned indent in the wall. He presses his back up against the surface, forcing his breaths shallow as he listens to Baekhyun’s footsteps.

Suddenly, _Junmyeon_ passes, casually striding in an outfit that doesn’t match the athletic vibe of EXO’s fashion. A striped tee and jeans that make Yixing notice that Junmyeon has pretty meaty thighs. And quite the ass. Not that he’s looking there. 

He comes out from his hiding, catching up. If he’s with, “Junmyeon!”, then Baekhyun won’t bother him. 

Junmyeon turns around, smiling, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, he starts doing things with his hands, and it takes Yixing a moment to realize he’s making motions. Gang signs?

“Are you okay?” Yixing furrows his brows in perplexion. Is there a joke he isn’t getting? Is he supposed to know sign language?

Junmyeon’s mouth opens to speak, however, it’s a different voice that comes out. 

_“Hi Yixing! How are you? How was your day?”_ Yixing whips around to see Baekhyun, one hand pointed up towards Junmyeon, finger movements corresponding with the other’s lips. That’s when he realizes:

“Hah, gotcha.” Baekhyun smirks, twirling his finger and suddenly Junmyeon disappears. Right, he can do these fancy optical illusions. The second Baekhyun (Baekhyun²) was bad and all, but this… this is _cruel!_

“Why would you do that?” Yixing now has no idea if those clothes even exist and now doesn’t think he will ever get to see Junmyeon in those jeans! Curse Baekhyun. 

“Because you were running away, so I made someone you wouldn’t run away from.” Baekhyun then snakes an arm around Yixing’s shoulders, giving a wide grin. “So, where we going?”

“Um, I’m going to RF, to get my bracelet deactivated.” It’s the least bit strange how Baekhyun isn’t referencing the incident whatsoever, especially considering the purple hue across his nose. Maybe he just wants to forget it. If Yixing had gotten hit in the balls that hard, he would want to forget it too.

“Ooh, fun. It’s so liberating, like, I could finally tell people that I met Sana from Twice at a bar.” Baekhyun starts walking and Yixing trusts that he’s going in the direction of RF’s room. Also, the grip is unnecessarily tight, so he can’t exactly get out without making a big deal of it.

“Why would you lie about that if they know you’re lying?” He asks.

“No, I said it before I got the bracelet deactivated, too. So they don’t know which one to believe.” Baekhyun’s arm soon slides up from his shoulders, hanging loosely at his neck. This makes Yixing extremely uncomfortable.

“That makes no sense.” He says, ignoring how Baekhyun’s nails drag across his collarbone and a shiver sends down his spine. It’s just Baekhyun being Baekhyun. “They will obviously believe that it did happen because you said it when the bracelet was activated.”

 _“I met Sana from Twice at a bar,_ Yixing.” The already tight grip starts to solidify even more, and Baekhyun’s fingers trace at his throat. When they wrap all the way around his neck, Yixing realizes it’s not just casual. Nor Baekhyun-sual.

He stops, grabbing the shorter’s wrist. “Are– are you trying to kill me?”

Baekhyun bursts out in laughter, but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

“No, that’s ridiculous. Why would I try to _kill_ you?” He reaches his other arm to grab Yixing’s hand, lifting it off of his wrist. “I’m just admiring… your neck. It’s very nice.” 

Okay, he’s trying to kill him.

“Does this have to do with me hurting you?” Despite the question, Yixing knows it does. Especially when Baekhyun’s forced grin widens and grip tightens at the statement.

“Stop.” Yixing peels him off, shoving him away and backing up. “Look– well, don’t look, listen: I did it because I am actually fed up with you. And I’m not going to apologize because I don’t regret it.”

Baekhyun tosses the angelic act, a humorless expression surfacing. “It hurts to _pee,_ Yixing. Not to mention ejacu–“

“Good!” Yixing forces out before he can finish the word. “Good. I’m glad it hurt. You deserve it. It balances out all of the hurtful stuff you’ve said to me. And now we’re even, okay?”

 _“Even?”_ Baekhyun repeats as if it’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard. “So it’s _even_ that I make a joke or two about you and you _injure_ me and then go tattle to your boytoy about your _‘harassment’?”_

As Yixing’s putting two and two together, Baekhyun scoffs, “God, I don’t get what Junmyeon likes so much about you. So fucking dramatic…”

Yixing holds in the anger and tries to speak rationally. He’s arguing about why they are even, not why he isn’t dramatic. “For someone who is new here, it’s already hard enough without you ridiculing me. And then calling me dramatic when I respond negatively? What do you expect? I hurt you because it was the only thing I could do to make you actually take me seriously. Or, that’s what you made it feel like. So maybe think about why I did it in the first place. Why I have resorted to hurting you and going to him.” Also, what exactly had Junmyeon said to Baekhyun?

A rare occurrence: Yixing sees seriousness contemplation in Baekhyun. He frowns, bottom lip sticking out in thought. His expression changes from several things, and for a moment, Yixing braces himself for a slap in the face.

Then, he returns to grinning. It’s almost creepy. Wait, no, it _is_ creepy. “Kay! Gotcha. Fair enough." And when Yixing just stares because he's trying to figure out Baekhyun's motive, he continues, "What? Why are you looking at me like that? Do you not trust me?"

"Exactly." 

It's almost funny how Baekhyun's face falls, as if he _hadn't_ expected that answer. "Awe, honey," A hand goes up to probably touch his face or something and Yixing dodges it. "I'm the most trustworthy person here, you know."

"..."

"I'm not lying! It's chill, really. But just know our chances of ever having sex are now a zero. You've ruined your opportunity. But we can still be friends!”

“I don’t care.” Yixing would have given a sarcastic _I’m so sad,_ but he’d get electrocuted (but not for much longer?!). Although he doesn’t doubt Baekhyun knows his way around in intimacy, Yixing has been fine for the last seven years with his right hand and he’ll be fine keeping it that way. Besides, he has a feeling that sex with Baekhyun would open the perfect chance for revenge and Yixing prefers to keep his genitals. 

“That’s what they all say.” They then continue, but Yixing keeps his distance from Baekhyun. Fortunately, he doesn’t notice, so Yixing manages to inch a record two feet away and walk in peace.

“You do have a pretty neck, though… ever think of one of those chain heart chokers? Like, in the anime trap porn?”

 _“No.”_

“Kay, your loss. Anyways, since we’re friends again, I’ve got to update you on things, dude!”

“Update me on what?” Yixing raises a brow. 

“People, duh.” Ah, drama. So he’s one of _those_ people. Not that it’s much of a surprise. “Okay, so, one, Jongin wants an all-chicken dinner and Minseok's vegetarian so they got into a really huge fight. But more importantly, you know how forever ago I told you I was gonna ask Channieyeol out after the dinner?”

“Yeah.”

“So, I never actually did that.” Yixing resists the urge to make fun of him. “But that’s because we went right to the movie, so I couldn’t get him alone. But I’m gonna do it. Next mission’s dinner. Whenever we're alone.”

“Why not the next time you catch him in the hallway?”

“Cause, well, I was going to do it at dinner last time. So I’ll just wait till the next time.” 

That makes zero sense. The last time Yixing checked, asking somebody out isn't a routine. The last time he checked was right now. 

“Sounds like you’re holding it off because you’re scared.” He smiles when he receives an offended look. “Tell me, do you think he will reject you?”

“No– that’s not it.” Baekhyun puffs his chest out slightly. “I know he’ll say yes. Who could reject _me?_ I’m Byun Baekhyun, who is handsome, cute, smart, witty, loving, and incredibly sexy and desirable and–“

“Woah, slow down there.” Yixing chuckles, “Don’t let your ego get too big. Because it’ll then hurt even more when he rejects you… _oh no, I am so handsome, cute, smart, witty, loving, and incredibly sexy and desirable. What ever could have happened?”_

“Yah, he’s not going to.” Baekhyun shoves him. “Besides, I’m only telling the truth. I am the perfect man. I don’t know why he wouldn’t want me.”

“Maybe he’s heterosexual.”

“That’s what every guy says until they meet me.”

“You’re too full of yourself.”

“Chanyeol likes someone confident.”

“You’re an insolent asshole.”

“Only to you.”

“You’re short.”

Baekhyun scowls, stopping. He puts a hand over the top of his head, then sliding it off to hit Yixing’s head. “I’m literally up to _here_ on you.”

“Not to me, stupid.” Yixing pushes him off. “To Chanyeol. He’s like a head taller than you. He’ll have to crane his neck whenever he kisses you.”

“No, I’ll just stand on my toes.”

“And then lose your balance.”

“Actually, I took taekwondo before I came here. I was a black-belt.” Yixing doesn’t think he would be able to overpower a black-belt...

“Yeah, just like how you met Sana from Twice at a bar.” He has it figured out. Baekhyun was lying about meeting Sana from Twice at a bar in the first place because he currently does not have his bracelet activated! 

“I _did!_ I literally have the fucking pictures– wait, no, I don’t. You know what? Just stop talking.”

“Okay.”

When they reach the door, Yixing looks blankly to the keypad, and then to Baekhyun who is already typing something in.

“Pro tip: all the rooms in the main hallway have passwords. They all used to be just the room name, but then people started changing them. You’ll just have to learn them. But when in doubt, do backwards _lana.”_

“Backwards _lana… anale.”_ He furrows his brows, pronouncing the mystery word in different ways. _“Anole. Anayle. Anal–_ oh.”

Baekhyun snickers, pressing his hand on the small of his back and leading him in (to which Yixing slaps his arm). “Hah, you said it.”

Yixing shakes his head, rolling his eyes. _Teenagers_. More specifically, _teenagers with the testosterone and the audacity to act as animalistic as Byun Baekhyun_. Or, even more specifically, _Byun Baekhyun._

He has to squint to adjust to the light, but Yixing wastes no time. He makes a beeline for RF’s glass cage, not stopping even when he trips over a cleaner bot and grabs onto Baekhyun for balance. From there, Baekhyun giggles and Yixing pettily paces an obvious three steps away from him. His gaze switches from the black screen to the glass door, waiting for one of them to do something.

When he is looking at the black screen, the glass door opens, and the large robot lights up and hovers out. The way RF powers up, he notes, looks exactly like how RD_06 powered up. In fact, now that Yixing is seeing the robot again, the prototypes look like exact duplicates. Figures that RF would want to recreate itself, but perhaps it should prioritize assuring that everything with the already made technology works. (The bracelets. Fix the bracelets!).

“Hello Agent Lay. Hello Agent Hyunee.”

“Hey babe,” Baekhyun is now off to one of the holographic desks, digging through a drawer. He procures a lollipop, eyes widening in amusement. “You knew I was coming, didn’t you?”

“I can see everything that happens here, Agent Hyunee. Are you that surprised?” 

“No, but I am touched. You’re a sweetheart.” He sticks the lollipop in his mouth. Yixing scrunches his nose at the smirk he gives the robot.

“Anyway.” RF seems to be weirded out too, because it focuses right back to Yixing. “Agent Lay, you are here to get your wristband deactivated. Come here.”

In case of any sudden mind change, Yixing is going to wait until after it is off and he has proven it is off to ask about everything. He cautiously follows the robot – and bends down to look under it because he is curious as to why it can hover like that; all he notices is that, if looking through, the air is kind of blurry, so it must be some kind of heat – to a large machine in the corner. In the center is a rectangular hole and right above that is a window viewing some sort of rack.

“Put your hand in there and position the wristband in alignment with the receptors.”

“What is that going to do?” Yixing lifts his right hand hesitantly. The bandage is nothing against electricity. “I’m not going to get shocked, right?”

“With the amount of times you have been electrocuted, I don’t think one more is going to hurt.”

Yixing gapes, eyes widening as he looks to RF. Did it really just say that?! Did he just hear this robot ridicule his suffering? But, more importantly, this requires _another_ shock?!

“Joking.” RF then says. “I am joking. You will not be shocked. I made the joke because you have been electrocuted a count of thirty-five times throughout the past month, which is more than twice the count of the former greatest liar, and also because I am working on the humor side of myself. Was it funny?”

Promptly, Baekhyun barks out a laugh. Yixing turns to see him clapping his hands together, wiping a fake tear.

“Hilarious, RF! You’re the comedy _queen!”_

Yixing frowns. “No, it wasn’t funny.”

“You’re only saying that because you’re butthurt.” Baekhyun retorts. “I thought it was hilarious.”

“RF asked _me_ , not _you.”_ To this, Baekhyun sticks his tongue out. Yixing resists the urge to throw something at him. It’s quite easy because he has nothing to throw. 

“Okay, thank you for the feedback.” RF says, “Now what are you waiting for, Agent Lay? Scared?”

“...Joke. It was another joke.”

 _“Aha!_ Fucking knee-slapper! RF, you genius!”

Yixing mutters spiteful nonsense under his breath, then inserting his wrist, gingerly as to not accidentally brush his hands against the metal prongs. Then, an arm extends from the side of RF, entering a different part of the machine. The function looks exactly like the handshake of RD_06...

"Agent Lay, please replace your hand and position the wristband in alignment with the receptors.” RF repeats while Yixing's trying to shake off the image of his wrist charred black. 

It's not until RF says, "It will not hurt you." That Yixing comes to his senses and puts his hand back in, lining the bracelet up with the prongs. He doesn’t hear anything, nor see anything happen through the window, but apparently something is going on as RF has stopped speaking.

Almost a full minute later, there is a ding, and the robot says. “You may remove your arm.”

Although it is apparently disabled, there is no huge bout of relief. The lack of seeing any part of the process has left him dubious.

“It’s... _not_ going to shock me from now on, correct?” He inspects his wrist as if he'll find proof. 

“Incorrect.” Wait a second. “I may shock you on my own account if deemed necessary, but you will not be shocked for lying. It is very rare that I would shock a member on my own account.”

“Hold up,” Baekhyun interjects, “literally _yesterday_ I _–“_

“Okay...” Yixing still doesn’t feel much better. He would usually trust technology, but the RD incident has left him more than suspicious. In fact, he has started to go all the way to the locker rooms to shower, where he is told there is not any monitoring. Maybe he should try lying here, so he won’t have to figure it out later when he is not with RF. 

The thought scares him, but he won’t be content until it’s proven. Plus, although RF was joking when she had said Yixing can take one more, there is some truth to it: Yixing has built up a small tolerance to electricity. Or at least a familiarity. 

So, he turns. “Baekhyun.”

Baekhyun shuts a drawer suspiciously quick and whips around. Wiping a guilty look off of his face, he folds his hands together. “Yes?”

But now is not the time to focus on whatever he was doing. “I have something to tell you.” After the statement, Yixing approaches him, tuning into his inner actor that he doesn’t have and looking Baekhyun sincerely in the eye.

It’s not taken too seriously though. “Ya?”

“I... love you.”

Automatically, Yixing braces himself; squeezing his eyelids shut and tensing his muscles, prepared to fight the couple seconds of agony. However, nothing happens.

Nothing happens!

Yixing opens his eyes unscathed. A wide grin spreads his face and elation takes over. He jumps up and down, bringing his hands to his chest. 

“Oh my god! It worked! _It worked!”_ He grabs Baekhyun’s shoulders, shaking him. “Did you see that?! It _worked!_ Well, it didn’t work! It _didn’t_ work!”

Downturned eyes blink widely. 

“What?” Baekhyun looks lost. “What worked? What do you mean?”

At this, Yixing stares at him for a moment. Is he serious? Yixing has told him on _several_ occasions how much he hates him. Literally _ten minutes ago_ how much he hates him. It’s almost funny. Wait, no, it _is_ funny.

Baekhyun’s mouth falls open. _“Wha?_ Why are you laughing? I don’t get it.”

“Baekhyun–“ Yixing decides to let him in on the secret. “I’m laughing because you think I was telling the truth. I was _lying._ That was my first lie! I _hate_ you!”

Baekhyun’s mouth makes an ‘O’ shape, then contorting into offense. “Hey! That’s not nice!”

“Awe, I’m so sorry.” 

Again, no shock!

This time, he catches on, because he punches Yixing lightly in the arm. “Alright, no need to be an asshole now.”

“I have been an asshole from the first place.” Yixing chuckles. “But now I can fully flourish. Okay, I’m leaving, don’t follow– wait, no I’m not.” Questions, right! He had almost gotten too caught up in his own excitement. It quickly disappears and his voice returns to something monotone.

“RF.”

The robot turns from the holotable to him. “Yes, Agent Lay?”

Because it’s a robot, he doesn’t bother beating around the bush and just gets to the point. “I have several questions. One: who are the three other EXO members I don’t know of including Yifan? Two: what is a RD_06 and why am I not supposed to know about it? Why was I burned? You've got to fix it. And three: said RD_06 mentioned you having a ‘sister’ robot and also working for a ‘Vermillion’, what does that mean?”

Suddenly, a door shuts. Yixing turns.

Baekhyun is gone.

RF replies like it hadn’t noticed. “I have several answers. One: the members, as observable, have decided to not tell you. I will respect their wishes. Two: RD_06 is a project–”

 _“Decided to not tell me?”_ Yixing’s eyes widen, and something of betrayal squeezes in his chest. In retrospect, it was obvious, yet for some reason it still comes a surprise. Because what about Junmyeon’s whole ‘everyone’s-instant-best-friends’ thing? Does best friendship include secrets, here? It makes him scared, because if everyone is doing this collectively against him, what _else_ is being done collectively against him? And what _is_ so bad about them?! “Why? If they’re trying to make me not worry, it’s _not_ working.

“I will not disclose.”

“RF, that’s _their_ decision. Not yours. I thought you controlled everyone here, anyways. Please tell me, it’s been stressing me out. And if I am stressed out I will not work hard and do good things for the team.” He doesn’t really anyway, but for the sake of the argument he leaves this out.

“You will have a better chance getting it out of a person than a robot.”

Yixing stares for a couple moments, waiting for a change of mind but nothing comes. He sighs. RF is right: if it doesn’t want to tell him, there is no way he can convince it. It will just be a waste of time. He’ll just have to try harder to get it out of the people. He hasn’t tried asking Junmyeon. He can do that. He _will_ get it out of someone.

“Fine.” He says eventually. “And the other questions?”

“Two: RD_06 is a project I am working on. You were not supposed to know in case of potential meddling. You were injured due to a precautionary measure.”

 _“Burned._ Why I was _burned,_ you mean?” Yixing’s voice gains a bit of vexed momentum. For a simple ‘meddling’ precaution, a third degree burn is _way_ over the top. Why is RF acting like it's just a little scratch? Like he wasn't sobbing the point where he felt like fainting? “I got the message. I shouldn’t have been there. But this thing,” He lifts up his wrist, focusing on the dialogue so the image doesn't reappear, “almost killed me. Or maybe I’m being just _dramatic_ , but it certainly felt like I was going to die. Yet, I hadn’t even been legitimately told to leave before it started burning. What kind of way is that to treat your agents? Whom of which are what you _need_ in order to restore the ‘Tree of Life’ or whatever.” 

So maybe he’s getting a little heated (no pun intended), but it’s not like RF can get heated back. For once, Yixing is on the other side of the equation. 

“You were not supposed to be in there. It was a panic mode of the normal security regimen because it was a large mistake and therefore a large surprise that you even had access to the place. However, you were warned beforehand with the renavigation. Yixing,” Is this the first time RF has referred to him by his name? “I strongly advise you listen to directions here. Misbehavior is not a wise choice.”

It’s the least bit nerve wracking to be talking back to something more than twice the size of him. Yet, Yixing’s anger pushes him on. “That’s too cryptic. _I strongly advise you listen to directions here. Misbehavior is not a wise choice._ What do you mean? Do you mean you’ll kill me if I do something bad? Or that I’ll be further tortured by this bracelet? You’re a robot, aren’t you? So _say it how it is. ”_

RF’s calm tone makes a stark contrast against his. “Please calm down, Agent Lay. You are being irrational. I will not kill you. That is ridiculous. As I said, it was a mistake in the system, and it will be fixed. Misbehaving only makes everything harder, so I would advise to not. I know how much you are struggling.”

A scoff. "You _won't_ kill me but you have no problem almost burning my hand off?"

"Again, it was a mistake. It should not have occurred. I am sorry it happened to you and the problem will be fixed straight away." 

Yixing looks down, trying to find something that tells him RF_05 is a human-torturing robot. That the whole trauma he had gone through is not invalidated by some ‘bug in the system’. That he’s not being fucking _dramatic_ and that there is something actually wrong. 

But he can’t.

“And your third question: I used to have a complimentary robot called CF_13, commonly referred to as my sister. She broke, however, and is no longer in use. Eugênio Vermillion is the human who designed and created EXO.”

Yixing gets a – figurative – itching feeling at the back of his head, like he has heard of this before. He can’t put his finger on it, though, so he just nods. “Can I get in contact with this Eugênio?” Because boy does he have a _lot_ to say!

“No. He is dead."

Oh.

Yixing blanches. “Dead? Then how is this running?”

“Humans are not needed for everything, Agent Lay. I am running it.” It’s still strange to think that something that isn’t even human has more authority over him. That this robot is not made for the purpose of serving or helping him in any way. That, in fact, it’s quite the other way around.

“Okay, then… What about the letter?” If it runs the place and, as mentioned earlier, can see everything that happens, then it will know about this. “The paper that I wrote in Mandarin about the members but threw away, and then it somehow showed up in Junmyeon’s hands in _Korean_ in _my_ handwriting and I was _shocked_ when I said I didn’t know what it was.”

“You were shocked because it was false. You knew what it was. You had written it.”

Yixing narrows his eyes. “Not _that_ one. I didn’t write that one. I wrote it in Mandarin. And threw it away. _Destroyed_ it. What happened? Why did it come back in Korean?”

“You did not destroy the paper, Agent Lay.”

Amongst his frustration, Yixing freezes. 

He _knows_ he had thrown it away. His memory may be poor, but he remembers discovering the cool trash disposal, watching it burn to nothing, having Baekhyun interrupt and then their first mission being called. That all happened. Maybe RF just has strange wording.

“I… threw it away.” He tries.

“You did not throw away the paper, Agent Lay.” 

“I– I did?” A shiver runs down Yixing’s spine. Why is RF telling him he didn’t? He _knows_ he did. Why does the tone of voice remind him of _Agent Lay, you're not supposed to be here?_

“You did not throw away the paper, Agent Lay.” 

“I did. Why are you telling me I didn’t?” Yixing suddenly feels _very_ uncomfortable. RF has never acted strange until now. Until now, where Yixing really begins to inquire. Why is that? 

“Because you did not throw away the paper, Agent Lay.” The voice is the same tone as the last two, not showing a hint of irritation. Of course, robots can’t be irritated. Or they can just hide it.

 _Prove it,_ Yixing wants to spit back, yet, a sudden twisting in his stomach and horrible recognition to a couple nights before tells him otherwise. Instead of replying, he backs up towards the door. He knows he threw it away. He did. There has to be security footage, or something. 

Nothing is said as he leaves. All the way down the hall he keeps his eyes glued on the room. As if he’s going to be chased.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

On the search for someone (Junmyeon), Yixing is yet again distracted by a noise. However, it is different from last time, because the noise is coming from the bathroom right here and it’s without a doubt human voices. So, he steps a bit closer to listen in, just in case he is about to interrupt something very awkwardly. The door is thin enough that he can hear voices talking heatedly yet thick enough that he can’t decipher what they’re saying. 

Suddenly, there are loud footsteps from somewhere else. Yixing looks to his right to see Sehun bounding around the corner, dragging behind him a bewildered Junmyeon. Perfect; just who he was looking for.

“Oh! Yixing-hyung!” Sehun sounds weird having so much animation – and volume – in his voice. He stops in front of him, letting go of Junmyeon who smiles curtly at Yixing before doubling over to catch his breath (also, not to be a pervert or anything, but Baekhyun's illusion of Junmyeon _wasn't_ exaggerating). “You HAVE to see this! It’s–”

 _“–Could you!”_ Yixing interrupts, “Speak a little quieter.” Junmyeon is standing upright now, but still breathing heavily. He points to Yixing, nodding emphatically.

“Sure, old man ears,” Before Yixing can argue that an old person would be the opposite, Sehun continues. “Kyungsoo's shaving his head.”

“Okay…?” Yixing doesn’t get it. What’s the big deal? It’s just a haircut. Or, a really really short haircut. At least it's not the mohawk he had in third grade. He decides to give Sehun at least a bit of enthusiasm and asks, “Why?”

“I don’t know. He said it was annoying him.”

“He also said that he doesn’t want everyone to make a big deal out of it.” Junmyeon smiles weakly, tugging Sehun’s arm. 

Sehun snorts. “Yeah, whatever. Move outta the way.”

Yixing then goes to say something to Junmyeon along the lines of _can we talk_ , but Sehun grabs his arm and pulls him out of the way of the door. He spins so his back is against the push handle, making a ‘shush’ gesture before opening it cautiously.

Yixing has the incentive to just leave, but Junmyeon’s hands find his arm and he is suddenly following in. The voices he had heard amplify by at least double and Yixing’s ears take a moment to adjust before he looks around. Even smaller than the rec room, the bathroom really puts into perspective how many people there are. Yixing counts six, but it feels like twenty. The man of the hour, Kyungsoo, is currently sitting criss cross on the sink counter, wide eyes staring at himself in the mirror as he holds up a razor. He hasn’t done anything yet, black hair still full on his scalp. Baekhyun is right behind him, hands on his shoulders, but is now backing up because Kyungsoo’s pointing the razor towards him. Baekhyun backs up into Sehun which results in more yelling and Junmyeon trying to break it up and Jongin is a bit further in the bathroom, just watching it all.

Every single one of them agreed to keep a secret from him. 

But Yixing doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it right now. No matter how much it’s killing him, he’ll just wait to ask Junmyeon. He has a very strong feeling Junmyeon will tell the truth.

“What the hell, Sehun?” Kyungsoo jabs the razor to scare Baekhyun once more, then looking to Junmyeon and then Yixing. “I said to _not_ make a big deal out of it!”

“Do you see Jongdae and Chanyeol in here?”

“I see Baekhyun.”

“Wow!” Baekhyun puts his hands up, but stays hidden behind the youngest. “So I see that I’m loved!”

“You’re obnoxious.”

“And you’re gonna be bald but I’m not saying anything.”

“I’m _choosing_ to do this.”

“Why? You’re going to look ugly...”

Kyungsoo glares at Sehun and whatever he was going to say is shut up. Kyungsoo huffs. “Well, no one else is coming, right?”

“Right!”

As if scripted, the door bursts open. Yixing barely dodges the swinging metal as Jongdae rushes in.

“Sup– OH MY GOD KYUNGSOO YOU’RE SHAVING YOUR HEAD I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!”

“No, don’t touch me– stop–!“

“I’m going to miss your fluffiness! I need to say my goodbyes!”

“Don’t _kiss_ my hair!”

_“Muah! Muah!~”_

Yixing backs up so he’s touching the wall, safe from the anarchy. Junmyeon soon does the same, and then Sehun too, but with a satisfied smirk on his face. What a devil. When it gets to the point where Kyungsoo grabs the razor again, pointing it up and threatening to cut Jongdae, he finally backs off. Kyungsoo shakes his head, trying to fix the hair Jongdae had mussed. Tension settles in the room as Kyungsoo glares daggers at everyone (primarily Baekhyun and Jongdae and Sehun). When he gets to Yixing, he puts his hands up, pointing subtly to Sehun. Kyungsoo makes no acknowledgement. Instead, he sighs. 

“Can’t I just cut my hair in peace?”

“No! You’re _shaving your head!”_ Baekhyun says. “That’s like, getting circumcised versus getting your dick cut off.”

Sehun furrows his brows. “What friends would go with someone to get _circumcised?”_

“Um, us. EXO. Duh.”

This makes Yixing shiver.

Kyungsoo scoffs. “God, does it always have to be about _dicks?”_

“It’s cause he’s gay.” Jongdae simpers.

_“Bi.”_

“Okay! _Out!_ All of you!” Kyungsoo switches on the razor, jumping off of the counter. His hair falls into his eyes as he points the tool towards Jongdae, backing him up to Baekhyun. This, in turn, makes Baekhyun back into Sehun and Sehun back into Junmyeon and Junmyeon back into Yixing and Yixing back into the corner but the corner doesn’t back up so Yixing gets squished.

“Out, or I’ll cut you.” Yixing would love to leave, but the door handle is currently in the corner opposite where he is not being crushed.

“Can I stay, though?” Sehun peers over Baekhyun and Jongdae.

“No.”

“What about me, Hyung?” Jongin speaks for what has to be the first time. Unlike the rest of them, Jongin is by the sink, bystanding the whole ordeal.

“Yes. Only you.” Kyungsoo then advances the plurality, despite their protests.

“What?!”

_“Woah!”_

“Excuse me!”

Yixing doesn’t really care, though. He can see what bald Kyungsoo looks like the next time he sees him. Hairy Kyungsoo then presses something and suddenly, the razor starts making a buzzing sound. “You heard me. _Out.”_

So Sehun fights out of the crowd to the door handle. He doesn’t pay any mind to Yixing as he nearly traps him into the corner, had Yixing not made a leap of faith to Junmyeon’s shoulder. He gives it an apologetic pat and Junmyeon just smiles and _somebody_ kicks his butt on the way out but when he turns around both Baekhyun and Jongdae look equally guilty, so he just pretends it didn’t happen.

“You know what?” Baekhyun looks away from Yixing’s scrutinizing stare. It’s the first time they’ve made eye contact, but it’s quickly gone. “Fuck _Kyung-_ soo. We should start calling him Bald-soo.”

Junmyeon’s face falters. “I don’t think that’s very–“

“Great idea, Baek!” Jongdae says. 

Sehun narrows his eyes. “But not in _front_ of him.”

“Well, _duh.”_

Junmyeon looks to Yixing with an exasperated expression, and something tells him that this is a regular occurrence. Face taut with mirth, Yixing gives a smile back.

“Okay, so.” Jongdae bends down, putting his ear to the crack of the door. “I’ll translate, okay?”

“Good idea.” Baekhyun kneels, and Sehun leans onto his shoulders. Junmyeon and Yixing remain standing.

Jongdae squints before readjusting himself, this time cupping his ear.

“Alright, mission activate… he’s saying… Jongin, don’t go out there… they are… here… can you hold this for me...? Thanks… Jongdae, Baekhyun, Sehun– _ooh, that’s us!_ – I know you’re out there… go away or I’m going to kill you...”

Baekhyun and Sehun exchange a worried glance. Silently, they stand, slowly backing up from the door and the oblivious Jongdae.

"Can't you give your attention to someone who wants it… I go through this shit every god damn day and I'm paid zip… seriously, go the fuck away." 

When Junmyeon looks to Baekhyun and Sehun, who have tip-toed halfway down the hallway by now, his jaw drops in _you-guys-are-_ seriously _-not-doing-that._ He receives a shrug, and then both run off. To Junmyeon's inquisitive look Yixing gives a shrug as well, heading quietly in the direction opposite. He gestures for Junmyeon to come along, but he shakes his head.

"Do you think I'm kidding… I can see your face under the door… I will… no, Jongin, he won't get hurt, it's just a door…” 

Yixing watches him remain for a couple moments, and he can visualize the ethical battle going on in his head. Eventually, good-person-Junmyeon avails, and he taps Jongdae on the shoulder.

Jongdae looks up. "Yeah? Wait… where did everyone–"

_SMACK!_

Following the sound and a gasp from Junmyeon, Yixing turns a sharp corner. 

"Oh my god! Kyungsoo, you knocked him out!"

"Good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! <3 I'm currently at a place with very little internet so I'm hoping this uploads


	21. Truth (But It's Terrifying)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone finally tells Yixing what's up.

**IT TAKES** more than just asking to get Yixing into the gymnasium. It takes a whole manhunt, hide and seek, (a very brief round of) tag, and then the quiet game.

When Yixing had given up on finding Junmyeon after the whole Jongdae fiasco (as when he deemed it safe and turned back to get him, everyone was _gone)_ and was eating a turkey in the form of diminutive foam-like rations, Minseok came into the kitchen with Sehun. There was some whispering exchanged between the two before Yixing was invited to go train. Only that Yixing took the ‘invitation’ literally and politely declined. It wasn’t long before he started to get the hint that he didn’t actually have a choice, so he ditched the turkey and booked it. Getting lost in the maze of side-hallways again wasn’t exactly the best idea, so he stayed along the main path. Even so, it still took a good hour for the two to locate him, and from there he ran into one of the storage units and prayed they would just give up. But, considering that Minseok and Sehun had chased him around for an hour, they probably wouldn’t stop now. So Yixing started to accept his fate. When they found him there, in a crate, he still made a run for it, but he was seized by the arms, prisoner style, and pathetically dragged. He tried to make excuses; his pain, his fatigue, and when he found this not working, he went to bribing. That was when Sehun and Minseok just stopped talking altogether, solidifying like those scary guards in the crime movies. No matter what Yixing said, they made no reaction.

So now he’s here!

And yes, Yixing had tried very hard to avoid it. Not because he’s childish and being petty, but rather because he’s mature and making his own decisions, which includes deciding he doesn’t want to do training and doing all he can to evade. (Like taxes!). Nevertheless, he is still here, standing on the padded floor staring at himself in the mirror thinking about how his life came to here and if it would be a similar outcome if he had tried to evade taxes.

“What are we going to do with him, Hyung?” Sehun asks as if Yixing’s some sort of problem child. _No_ , he’s a problem _adult_. There’s a difference.

Minseok The Sadist looks Yixing up and down with those scrutinizing cat eyes. “Hmm... last time we did sparring and strength. I was thinking this time we do cardio...” Yixing’s heart stops, “plus endurance. That too.” And explodes.

Okay, so evidently Yixing would maybe benefit from some cardiovascular exercise, but he really doesn’t want to. Not only is it degrading to his body, but also his mind, because it’s so damn humiliating. Even if he is the only one in the room. What happens is that Yixing’s inner judge attacks Yixing and it’s brutal. He is content with it attacking other people, but not _himself!_ This is exacerbated by the constant suffering that dares him to give up.

Yet not even a minute later he finds himself shirtless on a treadmill, elevation set to the highest level so he has to grab onto the sidebar to keep balance. The frontboard of the machine holds a small screen and way too many buttons for just a simple treadmill. With this, Yixing gets an idea.

“Minseok-hyung, what does this button do?” He points to the corner in the top left at a button that’s obviously the power one.

“That one turns it on.” Minseok answers. Sehun fiddles with the two machines next to him, because apparently it’s part of the training regimen to be right there by his side doing the same exact work making him feel even worse about himself. 

“What about this one?” He slides down one button.

“That one increases the brightness of the screen.”

“This one?”

“Decreases it...” The word drags out. "Um, Yixing, why're you bandaged? What happened to your–"

“This one?”

“Uh– puts on jazz music. But–”

“This one?”

“...Volume up for jazz music.”

“This one?”

“Resets progress.”

“This one?”

“Extra loud jazz music.”

“This one?

“Self-destruct.”

“This–“

“Don’t you see what he’s doing?” Sehun interrupts, leaning onto the bar of Yixing’s machine. “He’s distracting you because he’s trying to stall.”

“Sehun,” Yixing glares at the kid. “Do you really think of me like that? You don’t think I am just genuinely wondering what each button does so I feel in control? That is really rude, you know.” In reality, it’s both, but no one has to know that. Especially since he has his bracelet deactivated!

For once, a benefit comes out of not being close with everyone here. Sehun’s face falls, mouth shutting as he nods. 

“Sorry.”

Yixing resists the urge to smile in victory, instead focusing back on the buttons.

“This one?”

And to his pleasant surprise, the gymnasium door opens. Yixing can’t tell who is entering, but waves in that direction so Minseok will look as well and get distracted².

“Hey Kyungsoo!” Minseok calls. “Looking good!”

“Looking bald!” Sehun adds.

As the figure comes closer, Yixing sees the result of Kyungsoo’s head-shave. Bald, he looks shockingly good. There aren’t many people who can pull off the buzzcut (nor are there many people who realize that, either…), but Kyungsoo is one of those gems. Maybe it’s how his brows and eyes are so large and bold that he doesn’t need a large and bold hairstyle. Yixing wonders what he himself would look like bald. He only has photos from third grade when his mother thought a mohawk would make him friends in Korea and then shaved it all a day later when Yixing came home crying. 

“Why is he shirtless?” Kyungsoo looks to Yixing and then to Minseok. He is the only one who has acknowledged that maybe Yixing didn't choose to do this. Wait, does that mean Kyungsoo thinks he’s ugly? Or does it mean that he cares about him?

“Motivation. He’s going to do the three-hour run!”

Yixing blanches. “I’m going to do the _what?”_

Please let him have heard that wrong. He will _not_ make a three-hour run. He knows this because two hours of sparring was far past his breaking point, and sparring isn’t even a linearly demanding cardiovascular exercise; he had breaks. 

Sehun laughs and Minseok starts to talk again, “It’s–“

“Actually, Hyung.” Kyungsoo interrupts. “I was thinking that I could take him for a little while to work on his abilities. That’s actually why I came in here.”

This is it. This is not the light at the end of the tunnel, but rather the convenient exit door to the left that doesn’t require going all the way through the tunnel. 

“That sounds great.” Yixing answers for himself like the independent adult he is. He hops off of the treadmill, skipping over to grab his shirt. When he, now fully clothed, turns to a betrayed looking Minseok and Sehun, he smiles sweetly. “I’ve had more athletic training than I have had power training. I think it should be balanced out.”

“According to your _needs_ …” Sehun mumbles, getting elbowed by Minseok.

“It’s alright. Go ahead.” Minseok says. “It’s just that we went through a lot to simply get you in this room.”

“I know. I was there.” Yixing comes up behind Kyungsoo. “Maybe that means you shouldn’t next time. Besides, now you guys are free from the burden of me to do your own thing.”

 _“Burden?”_ Minseok looks genuinely surprised and Yixing is genuinely confused. “You’re part of EXO, dude. So I’m going to force you to do it no matter what.” Sehun looks at Minseok pointedly and then down to the floor. “But you’re out of it this time. Go… what’s your power, again?”

“Cell regeneration.”

“What?”

“Healing stuff…” Can’t he have it sound cool at least once? 

“Well, go heal stuff!” Minseok pumps a fist. “Fighting!” 

Sehun side-eyes the eldest again. Although Yixing cringes, he also raises a weak fist, mouthing the word as he turns with Kyungsoo. The shorter has a small backpack on, he notices, and he wonders what he has in store for him. And also if it is in fact for him because if so, wow, that means he is actually taking him into consideration and maybe Yixing will actually get a hang of his power? They enter the mat tunnel silently, remaining like that the whole time because neither are much of conversationalists.

When Kyungsoo shuts the door of the ability gymnasium, though, he starts talking.

“You’re welcome, by the way.” He says as he walks towards the center of the vast room.

“Oh, yeah. Thank you.” Yixing bows his head sheepishly, though Kyungsoo's back is turned to him so he can’t exactly see him. “Seriously. I had one training session with Minseok the other day and I figuratively thought I was going to die.”

When he reaches the middle, Kyungsoo stops, plopping down criss-cross and swinging his bag in front. So it _is_ for Yixing. “Minseok is vigorous. That’s why you don’t have Minseok train you. He trained Sehun and Jongin. That’s why they’re the most athletic here, other than natural abilities in the first place.”

“So you guys choose who you’re going to train?” Kyungsoo is taking out two potted plants, one alive, flourishing green cactus and one malnourished, suffering brown cactus. They are both very small, maybe the height of Yixing’s middle finger. (He doesn't make to measure though). 

“There isn’t any system. We do have meetings prior to every new member, though.” This is interesting. Very interesting. “And it’s kind of just who ends up getting along with them the best and wants to take up that task. But you’re not limited to just one person for help. We’re a team.”

“Okay.” He now knows why he hasn’t received that much help. Or, at least, why it _seems_ he isn’t getting a lot of guidance. In fact, he doesn’t know anything about the other members when they were a newbie like him except that they were shocked and panicked. But that’s a given! 

So, he asks. “What information do you all get about new members?”

“Uh,” Kyungsoo pulls out a bottle of water and sets the bag aside. “Well, your name… age, date of birth, address of origin, address of current living, height, weight, economic status, social security number, family, education, important documents, handwriting, pictures and videos of you scrapped from surveillance cameras, and a brief exhibit on your personality configured by the technology… I’m definitely missing things, though.”

Yixing’s eyes widen. And here he was thinking he was a stranger to everyone; he had no idea! This is unfair. He knows little to nothing about these guys while they got a whole _presentation_ on him!

“What was said on my personality?” He's genuinely wondering about himself in the eyes of pure logic: technology.

“That you’re a stolid being with little empathy and tolerance for others.” Kyungsoo must see the look on his face, because he then adds, “And you’re a cat person.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Wow.” Yixing can’t help but laugh. “That makes me sound terrible. I’m not that bad.”

Instead of any reassurance, Kyungsoo pushes the two cacti forward. “Alright, so this is how it’s going to work. You have one alive cactus, and one malnourished, but not dead, cactus. Your power, cell regeneration, depends on the cultivation via absorption, holding the material, potential duplication and slash or conversion, and then transferring. What you essentially do is take the required atoms from one thing, the source, and then, with them in you, you’ll duplicate or convert these atoms to something else if needed– for example, if you needed to change a hydrogen atom to a carbon; this also is compatible with all ions and isotopes– and then you'll transfer them into the target that needs healing.”

Yixing again blanches but this time in a good way.

“Wow... that’s _so_ much better than the robot had put it.” He can’t thank Kyungsoo enough. He had said it as perfectly as a textbook– _is_ there a textbook on this? Can Kyungsoo write one for him? “Where’d you get this information?”

“Uh, well, a lot of it I’ve just theorized from biological principles, but there’s also some informational books.”

“Really?” Yixing’s interest is piqued. If he can learn about this place without actually having to get out of bed, he’s all in. Also, getting to know the science part of this all is interesting. Is there a chance that there’s a system of logic here he can learn, too? (Though, if there is, how do the things like his burn and RF lying to him and the three mysterious members make sense?) Will he be able to return to happy secure confident Yixing? “Could you get me some? About the power, specifically? And general stuff about this place?”

“Yeah, sure. Whenever we go to Exoplanet next. That's where they all are.”

“Thanks. It’s only been like ten minutes and you’ve already made my life so much easier.”

Kyungsoo gives a tiny smile. He then points at the cacti. “Because duplication and conversion are probably difficult, I want to start you off with just absorption and holding and transferring. That’s why there are two cacti, rather than just one. With this, and how they’re the same plant, you’ll only have to take the healthy and helpful atoms from this alive one, and then give it to the dying one.”

That sounds easy. That sounds simple. It also explains why his attempt with Baekhyun had done nothing: not only did Yixing have little grip on the logistics, but Baekhyun had only brought one dead plant. Yixing has no idea how to even take the atoms, much less convert them. 

“Okay, but how do I do that?”

To this, Kyungsoo shrugs. “I don’t know. Not my power.”

Staring between the two plants hoping that will make it happen but then it doesn’t, Yixing frowns. Although Baekhyun was just proven to be an unreliable source, he still finds himself thinking back to what he had said. Something about truly believing he can– 

Oh, look! The cacti have cute little name tags!

Yixing hadn’t noticed the two pieces of masking tape on the sides of the pots. He angles them towards himself and squints, reading, _“Channie…_ and–“

“Oh!” Kyungsoo voices in surprise, and suddenly the pots are turned back so Yixing can’t read them. He looks up in question to see an abashed looking Kyungsoo.

“I, ah, forgot to take those off.” The way he scratches the back of his neck and glances to his bag intrigues Yixing even more.

“Okay.” He nods, turning them forward to read.

Kyungsoo turns them back.

Yixing turns them forward.

Kyungsoo rips the nametags off, shoving them in his backpack.

Yixing makes a grab for the backpack.

Kyungsoo grabs the backpack first, taking them out and then shoving them down his shirt. 

Yixing stops here, freezing halfway from a tackle to sink back down. Jokes on him, because he still read them anyway.

 _“Channie_ and _H.”_ Luckily, Yixing has been on a mission so he is familiar with Baekhyun’s agent name. _“Channie_ , the alive and flourishing one, and _H_ , the malnourished and ugly one.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes dart to the floor, then back up to Yixing. “Fine. I name my plants. Happy?”

Yixing’s lips curl in an impish smile. “You know that’s not what I’m thinking.” At this, Kyungsoo visibly reddens. Poor guy, Yixing shouldn’t be teasing him. Kyungsoo hasn’t even done anything! (That he hasn’t apologized for).

“You like Chanyeol, right?” Yixing then specifies. “As in, you have a romantic or sexual attraction to him.”

Kyungsoo looks at him like he’s seen a ghost. 

“Who told you that?”

“Baekhyun.”

“Oh…” He nods to himself, and Yixing can practically see the internal debate. 

“Okay, well, yeah, kind of.”

“Why?”

Kyungsoo’s eyebrows furrow as he repeats, _"_ _Why?”_

“Yeah. Why do you like him?” Yixing doesn’t get why this question makes people so confused!

“None of your business.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s none of your business.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want you knowing.”

“Why?”

“Because you… well…” 

This time, the _why_ game avails for Yixing, resulting in, “Okay, fine. It’s because he’s…” Kyungsoo’s fingers drum on the _Channie_ pot, “He’s really kind… he has a really pure heart. He’s quite smart once you get to know him. And he’s really cute. I guess it’s just weird because I’ve never felt that way about a dude before.” 

“What way?” Yixing asks, though he already has an idea. He just wants Kyungsoo to say it. 

Kyungsoo's eyes narrow, “Why am I even telling you this?”

“Because we are friends.”

“Since when?”

“Since you gave me that hug…?” The way Kyungsoo looks at him turns it into a question.

However, as he had that night, Kyungsoo softens. “Fair enough. Well, just like, like I want to give him all my love and affection, or something. Not how I normally feel about anyone. Much less another guy.”

_‘Oh my god! Kyungsoo, you knocked him out!’_

_‘Good.’_

“I see.” So it seems they’re in a similar boat, except Yixing isn’t surprised that it’s another male. “Does he know?”

“What, that I like him?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, god no.” Kyungsoo chuckles. “Neither does he Baekhyun.”

Yixing draws it out in his head. “So it’s kind of a love triangle between you three, because Chanyeol is oblivious that you two are fighting over him.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say _fighting,_ but yeah, we both like him.” There is hesitance before Kyungsoo opens up. But he still does, and that sends a little flutter of happiness through Yixing. “I just… wish it wasn’t Baekhyun, out of everyone.”

“Why?”

“Well,” Kyungsoo not-so-discreetly glances to the dead plant. “We’re not really that similar, so Chanyeol is definitely going to like one over the other– if he’s even gay or bi, that is.” Yixing thinks this is a good thing, because if Kyungsoo has an idea what Chanyeol is looking for in a partner then it should be easy to pinpoint the best contender, but okay. “And Baekhyun just… he makes it like a competition. Always interrupting our conversations and agreeing with every little thing Chanyeol says and trying to counter everything I say. And he’s really good-looking and confident, so it wouldn’t be impossible for him to sweep him off his feet, homosexual or not.”

Yixing frowns. Now that he thinks about it, he is glad that no one else here likes Junmyeon. Or at least no one that he knows of. Ignorance is bliss. Considering that this place houses nine similarly aged teenagers and is therefore a hotbed of hormones (who, to top it off, seem to have no problem with homosexuality), should he be lucky? 

“That sounds like you don’t have a lot of confidence.” He notices. “Do you think that you’re insecure and ugly, or something?” 

“Well– no– just, unconventional I’d say.” Kyungsoo places a hand on top of his new do. “It’s just that going against someone like Baekhyun is kind of hard.”

“I imagine. Glad it’s not me.” Yixing agrees. At Kyungsoo’s offended look, he then continues with something that will turn that I-can’t-believe-you-just-said-that into a thank-you-so-much-Yixing-you’re-the-greatest.

“Also, some advice: Baekhyun is planning on asking Chanyeol out either before or after the next dinner when he catches him alone. Baekhyun, however, doesn’t seem to want to do it any other time. As I observed, he is not very confident.”

Kyungsoo looks up. “Wow. Really?– Well, yeah, you just said it, but… Baekhyun told you all that?”

“He seems to think we are best friends.” Yixing shrugs. “I don’t know why, but he can’t get it through his head that I really don’t like him.”

“Oh my god, _finally_. Someone who also dislikes him.”

Yixing smiles. At that moment, a connection is made. It’s over hatred of a third party, yes, but those are some of the best kinds of connections.

“Seriously,” Kyungsoo goes on, “I don’t know how anyone fucking stands him. Especially Jongdae– they’re like best friends.”

“Sounds like he’s always been a great guy. That makes me hopeful for the future.” Yixing’s lips thin. “But Chanyeol seems pretty level-headed. Shouldn’t he be annoyed with him, too?”

“Like I said, Baekhyun sucks up to him most of the time. So no.”

“Oh. That’s a bummer.” Yixing expresses his sympathy. “Also, don’t think I will take anything you say to him. I’m not like that. I just am with Baekhyun because I dislike him. But I like you, so don’t worry.” Additionally, he remembers the few times he had teased Baekhyun about Chanyeol; how chastened he had gotten for a couple blessed moments. If Chanyeol and Kyungsoo were to ever date, then that would be him on the daily and Yixing would get some tranquility. And Yixing knows Chan-Soo is a better pair because they are more compatible because they are more similar; in this case, opposites don’t attract.

Kyungsoo takes a moment to process. Then, he says, “Wow. Thank you, Yixing-hyung. But also… I just don’t know how to go about it?”

“Tell me how to absorb atoms from Channie and transfer them to the malnourished cactus.” Yixing purposely doesn’t say _Baekhyun_ or _H_ because he has the feeling Kyungsoo would then not be so keen on helping him do that anymore. “We can talk after I try and fail and then am in a bad mood and then talking with you might distract me.”

“Oh, right. I’m sorry.” Kyungsoo laughs sheepishly, turning his attention to the plants. “Alright, like I said, I don’t know anything in regards to your power. But I’ll give you the generals from mine and universal similarities between everyone.

“Typically, and I’m assuming this will apply to you too, it all comes from your hands. I can manipulate material with my hands. Sehun can make wind with his hands. Junmyeon moves water with his hands. Minseok ice. There are some that don’t, like Jongin who tells me in too-specific detail how he squeezes every muscle of his body to teleport, but I think yours does because you’re focused on a specific target.” At this, Yixing slightly lifts his right hand, angling it at _Channie_. So this is supposed to take stuff from something without even touching it. He feels stupid, but not as stupid as he had with Baekhyun.

“What I have theorized is that the powers depend on a mind-body connection, AKA your brain sending signals to your hands. I think what happens is that your brain gives a command, such as to lift this one-hundred-and-fifty ton rock, and it, of course, goes to your hand, but along the way the power catches onto the message and somehow makes it possible. The power, which is some kind of particle I think, lingers in your body until the message is sent, and then continues lingering from there. This would also be the cause for your abnormal vitals even when your power is dormant. But anyways, when the message is sent via the nervous system the particle catches onto the synapse from some kind of molecular bond, then traveling through with the message allowing you to do things outside of human nature… This all might not be true, but I think it’s close. I’ve been looking into this stuff for a little while, now.” 

This makes so much sense. Although Yixing would like to know what the particle of the power is and how exactly it just lingers, he knows Kyungsoo can’t answer everything. But, unlike everything he’s ever been taught on Earth: perhaps he could find out, someday. Here, everything is not already determined and spat out to him in this-is-how-it-works-now-go-make-money-or-die. It’s unnerving and scary, having no solid foundation to rely on, but a little exciting and inspiring as well. 

“It’s just the mystery of what the power exactly is.” Kyungsoo takes the thoughts right out of his head. 

“I’d think,” This may have been thought of already, but Kyungsoo hasn’t mentioned it, “considering how unfathomable powers are to Earth and how the last mission had been about gathering things from a different planet to help the powers: that they are something from a different galaxy, or something. Somewhere far away from Earth where the natural laws are different. But I don’t know enough astronomy or cosmology to have any specific idea.”

“That’s what I was thinking, too.” So this has been thought of. “But wouldn’t it be sort of a stretch? This whole thing was made by humans, Earth, in the first place.”

“Humans who knew how to make self-improving artificial intelligence and decided this whole thing should be secret and have kidnapped nine teenagers against their will without even having to be present.”

Kyungsoo looks up. “Okay, I see your point… maybe it has to do with Exoplanet. We can look around the next time we go there, along with you getting to tour the place.”

 _“We?”_ Hasn’t Kyungsoo done this already? Hasn’t he already tried to figure everything out and knows all the dead ends. Yet again, Yixing is thinking with an earthling mindset. Here, everything is not determined. 

“Yes, _we.”_ Kyungsoo sounds a little offended but Yixing didn’t mean it in the way where he wouldn’t want it to be ‘we’ because he dislikes Kyungsoo. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“No. I meant, I would’ve thought you had searched Exoplanet already and come up with your own conclusions.”

“Oh. Yeah, I get it.” He no longer looks offended. “We don’t actually go to Exoplanet that often, and until... recently, I haven’t really thought anything outside of the Tree of Life was worth observation. Also, Yixing, you’re overestimating the people here. When it comes to figuring things out, I’m basically alone. Minseok’s smart but he's only interested in athletics, Chanyeol’s smart but he's _always_ working, Junmyeon failed his sciences three times so he’s useless when it comes to anything outside of ethical discussions, and you know the rest. So everything I’m telling you is a work in progress.”

“That’s unfortunate for you.” Junmyeon failed his sciences? _Three_ times? Funny, because that was always Yixing’s best subject. (Clearly they are meant to be). 

_“Yeah.”_ The intonation suggests a lot more meaning behind it. “That’s why I’m glad you’re here. You’re smart in the right way. And you’re obligated to help me from now on.”

“Okay.” Yixing would like that, actually. Kyungsoo reminds him of Namjoon, except short and bald and odious to others and has a crush on Chanyeol. “Will that get me out of training more?”

“Sure. And yeah, speaking of training, let’s get back to it.” Kyungsoo reverts them back to the cacti. 

“The most important part of your power working… it sounds rather fictitious but… it’s to believe in yourself. Putting that into my theory, I think that if you fully believe you are capable of something, then all of your brain’s power will be put into that command, therefore making the nervous system’s connections strong and the synapses easier to access for the particles. So I’d say it’s more about the belief exerted, not possessed. But they’re basically the same thing.”

This is similar to what Baekhyun had said, except more specific and making sense. And, unlike last time, Yixing doesn’t feel such a huge bout of disappointment. He has more of a grasp on everything and is therefore, especially from how eloquently Kyungsoo had explained it, inclined to genuinely do this believing in himself thing. 

“You will know if it works. Some certain kind of chemical releases in the spot the power is targeted from. It’s not painful nor good, just a weird tingling sense. Like if a body part had fallen asleep.”

Okay. So let’s try this.

Yixing recalls childhood imagination as he aims his hand at the cactus (he still notes the bandage– it hasn't been there long enough to become normal). He tells himself he can do it, such as how he had once truly believed: _I can fly, I can save the world, I can put this pigeon in my pocket for three hours and it won’t die_ , but it’s now _I can absorb the atoms I need from this plant._ A bit more complex of a topic, but essentially the same concept.

Except then, amidst his dreams, something interrupts. Older Yixing, who had begun to build his Walls of Logic. It turned magic into: _I can’t fly because gravity exists, I can’t save the world because the world doesn’t need saving and utopia is impossible because conflict is a given, the pigeon has died because it suffocated so I should throw it away so I don’t catch a disease,_ and it’s now _I can’t absorb the atoms I need from this plant because I am not even touching it._ For the last ten or so years, Yixing has favoured Older Yixing (and is Older Yixing). But now, he needs him to go away.

Obviously, this is easier said than done.

Yixing drops his hand, trying to reason. “Hold on. I’m not just sitting here staring into space. I’m thinking.” He informs Kyungsoo before delving into his problem solving. 

If he cannot simply believe this, simply not extract himself from the hypercritical Older Yixing, then maybe he needs to find a way to make the two compatible: Older Yixing with belief. He needs to convince Older Yixing that this is possible; that he can do it. He would have called himself convinced earlier, but perhaps the process requires a stronger belief. Like Kyungsoo said, _all_ of the brain power needs to back up the connection. 

So he’ll reconvince himself. Older Yixing.

First off: Kyungsoo is a reliable source. Ever since Yixing has met him, Kyungsoo has proved to be nothing short of a genius with his knowledge of the technology, his reasoning, and his theories. Kyungsoo’s explanation attests Baekhyun and RF; two other sources. Baekhyun is not so reliable, but RF is technology and is therefore always correct besides malfunctions and that paper thing. If all three explanations coordinate, then it is likely it is true. Yixing _can_ use his power. 

Additionally, in the eyes of science, said explanation makes sense. This mystery particle is inserted into Yixing via some sort of exposure (where he had a three and one third chance of megaradiation resulting in burning to death), which means it sinks through his skin in all places and is therefore lingering in his body, layer depending on the form it takes. Then, when he genuinely believes that he can perform his ability, which is what he is trying to do right now, the brain to motion command via nerves is sent with a lot of power (because of the genuine belief), therefore enabling the particle to bond onto the synapses and travel with the nerves all the way through the message that is sent, enhancing it with a supernatural ability. If not for the unknown variables, it would be fact. And it’s not like there have been any mad scientists trying to figure this out, either; it’s been left to a teenage boy. 

Like the ocean, humans have explored almost nothing of space compared to what is out there. This means that many things unfathomable to the earthling exist. In fact, this feat has been proved to Yixing over and over again throughout his stay. Also, it is clear that the technology and business here does not have to do with anything on Earth except for its origin. It is concealed and self-improving. Because of these factors, the unknown variable, the mystery particle, is likely to come from somewhere of the unexplored where this particular energy is found. Perhaps this will be further corroborated at Exoplanet, whenever they next go.

This is why Yixing is able to do this. Why he _does_ have a power and it _will_ work. There is evidence strong enough that convinces Older Yixing, and suddenly, there is a strange feeling in his hand.

_Holy shit!_

Wow! Okay! This is real! This… Yixing hears Kyungsoo chuckle after his gasp. His eyes widen, inspecting his right hand. It doesn’t look different, but it certainly feels different. He can feel it tingling; as if every single atom is buzzing around; it’s working. Zhang Yixing can feel himself atomically absorbing nutrients from a cactus on a spaceship he was kidnapped on to save the universe. Wait– but that sounds ridiculous...

Suddenly, the feeling stops.

A bout of disappointment washes through him, and logic starts to battle itself all over again. What if he was just imagining it? As in the placebo effect? But he had genuinely believed it, and promptly after that it had been felt! It all _does_ make sense!

Then, Yixing feels moisture seep through his leg.

Looking down, he realizes a bunch of water is in his lap. But he hadn’t peed himself? He then realizes his hand is also wet.

“You almost have it!” Kyungsoo smiles at Yixing who stares at the stain. “What happened?”

“I think…” Yixing feels strange. To answer this, he’s not referring to a memorized fact, a textbook, google, but rather himself. “I had lost the belief. I put everything into perspective and then it sounded ridiculous so… so maybe the incubation of whatever it is fell loose, if that makes sense.”

“That makes sense.” Kyungsoo confirms. “But now I don’t think you’ll have much trouble with that. Look at yourself. The evidence is all over you.”

“Right.” It's surreal. He has done nothing here but get injured and be exhausted. Is he, for once, doing something positive? Doing something great, impossible, alike to saving not the world– but the universe?

That’s crazy.

But it’s also not, now that Yixing is here.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Through the next hour or so, Yixing gets two things. One, just believing he can do this isn’t enough, it also takes a grueling amount of his nemesis Focus and quite the toll on his hand. And two, Kyungsoo is a very reliable source.

Yixing makes enough progress to hold the atoms for a couple of seconds, but then everything drops. They have adapted with Kyungsoo’s backpack now on Yixing’s lap, the former dismissing it with “I can get a billion of these made if I wanted to.” Despite the improvement, though, Yixing quickly exhausts. Physically, his right hand starts to feel numb so he switches to his left, which surprisingly lasts more than twice the time. He doesn't know how he hadn't put it together before that the lack of nerves would make his hand weaker (it's crazy how several years of a certain special activity that built up muscle on his right is suddenly all gone– is he going to have to start doing it with his left, now?). Mentally, Yixing has enough strength to bring both hands to the same level of fatigue. By the time he musters his left to four solid seconds as well, Yixing’s mind is finally tired. Tired of repeating the same sentences in his head and trying to elicit that same feeling that will get it working. Also, the backpack soaks through.

Because of this, Yixing stops. Then, back to the second thing he gets, he looks up to Kyungsoo. He is pretty sure the guy will give him an honest answer. If not, though, Kyungsoo cannot exactly escape the situation with much ease. He doesn’t have a power that would be of much help nor does Yixing think he’ll make a run for it.

“Kyungsoo.” Yixing drops his hands. The second cactus is the same, meanwhile the first has become a bit drier because he can’t replace what he took. It is possible to duplicate the atoms so the source doesn’t suffer, but considering Yixing can’t even hold the atoms, there's no way he can duplicate them.

“Are you all tired out?”

“Yeah.” Yixing nods. “But also, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Like, a serious question.” This wins a curious look. “Something I don’t want you to evade or lie to me about. Please.”

Kyungsoo’s brows furrow. “I don’t know what kind of question would make me do that… but no, I won’t. Ask away.”

“Okay. Who are ‘Yifan’ and the two others that are EXO members? Why aren’t they here?”

It seems the former statement loses assurance as Kyungsoo’s eyes widen. His jaw drops slightly, and Yixing sees his eyes flicker in the direction of the exit. For a second, Yixing becomes afraid that he’ll make a run for it, because although Kyungsoo is short he is still definitely faster, but no such thing happens.

“Where did you hear about them?” He asks instead of answering.

But it’s a start. Yixing decides that this is a good sign. Kyungsoo will tell him. He just wants to know this, first. Who broke the agreement.

“Through slip-ups and context clues.” He then goes on to list, “Firstly, I’ve noticed that some of the habitat looks to hold more than nine members. Like in the locker room, where there are three blank lockers. Or the EXO-M dorm, where there’s an empty space in the room. Or in the recreation room where the console has twelve outlets for controllers. Or at the dinner table where the spacing is weird… now that I’m saying it, I’m surprised I didn’t think anything sooner...

“And then other stuff, like how on the mission I went on I had to get _twelve_ orbs that corroborate people’s powers. If there are twelve orbs, then that means there are twelve powers, and twelve people. And actually, didn't _you_ say you'd explain? And also, I know that the members aren’t coming, but that they’ve already been here, because I was looking through the emails and somebody mentioned a ‘Yifan’. ‘Somebody’, because the address said ‘Unknown’. And also the other people I have asked have given me no answers. Jongin first told me there was, and then said they were transferred and that he didn’t want to talk about it and teleported out. Minseok literally ran away when I asked him. Same with Baekhyun. And RF said you’re all keeping this from me and therefore didn’t tell me either.

“So,” Yixing looks up to make morally effective eye contact. _“Please_ , just tell me the truth. Whatever you think you’re accomplishing by not telling me is _not_ working, I assure you.”

Kyungsoo bites the inside of his cheek, not meeting his gaze. He just sits, staring at the plants for a long moment before speaking quietly. 

"We opted not to tell you because we didn't want to stress you out even more, but…"

So _that’s_ it? Didn’t want to _stress him out even more?!_ These people really _are_ fucking stupid. This is one of the biggest reasons he has been stressed this whole time! What the hell made them think telling him _you can’t know_ would give him peace?! Yixing would be far, _far_ less stressed about this and literally everything else if somebody could just tell him the god damn–

“Three of us are dead."

Truth… 

Dead.

The word echoes in Yixing’s head, punctuality striking a terrifying chord in his chest. He’s rendered speechless. _Dead, dead, dead…_ what does Kyungsoo mean, _dead?_ Like, they were abducted to this ship only to be killed? Their lives ended? They will never escape this nightmare to go back home to their families, who will never see the likes of them again? Oh my god, _dead?!_

"Why?" He asks, figuring that will get him the most context so he can stop freaking out so much. Maybe it’s an April fools' prank. In July, or whatever it is? Kyungsoo’s a funny guy, right?– Yixing tries to stop the panicked dry-comedy thoughts, but it’s no use. It's definitely a July fools' prank. 

"I…” How Kyungsoo briefly stumbles for words doesn't help the whole stop-panicking-so-much. "Well, a mission.”

“A _mission?!”_

“That's what RF told us.” For some reason, this sounds oddly cryptic, but _dead?_ There are people that are _dead_ here? “It was a mission with just the three of them. RF said that Luhan and Yifan were on the field, but they got into an environment where their powers were hindered. Zitao tried to go save them. None made it back.”

 _Luhan_ and _Zitao_ must be the other two. _Yifan, Luhan_ , and _Zitao_. 

Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao are dead.

“Were they members of EXO-M?” Yixing asks.

“Yes. They were the only genuinely Chinese ones, too.” Kyungsoo answers. “That’s also why we didn’t want to tell you. Because you’re Chinese and we didn’t want you to think it had some sort of connection to ethnicity. It doesn’t. It was just a shitty coincidence. Sehun was moved to EXO-M shortly following the deaths, and then we knew you were coming.”

“Wow.” Yixing says after a moment. Not because he’s offended from being discriminated against, but just _wow_. He knew there were twelve members. He knew something suspicious was going on. But never would he have believed (he has thought of it, but then brushed it off because that’s ridiculous) they were dead. Are dead.

“No, it’s not like that. It’s not just because you’re Chinese– it’s–“

“No,” Yixing shakes his head, but he can’t muster a comforting smile. “I’m just saying wow at the whole thing. Three… dead people. That’s hard to believe. That’s really… difficult.”

Oh god, and hadn't he barraged Jongin about it too? A wave of guilt washes through Yixing as he remembers the guy's breaking voice and stutters. _Stop! I shouldn't have..._

Kyungsoo nods solemnly. His eyes are still trained on the floor, and Yixing watches. It’s not that they’re at the brim with wetness, as in Kyungsoo will burst into tears. Rather, it’s despondency he sees. The lack of emotion in his expression, hiding behind his next statement and deep down where it’s more than just a mention to break him. How long has it been? Yixing wonders.

“Especially when you loved them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well fellas we figured it out the end lol thank u 4 reading
> 
> no jk this is only the beginninggggggggg
> 
> also I got rly nerd during ksoos explanations cause it feels more authentic if I can try to make it complimentary with science but also at the same time everything I wrote might just be a bunch of bullshit so if you happen to be a biology major or god feel free to tell me what's up or plan b we can all just pretend it is 100% accurate :D
> 
> ok thank you for reading have a nice week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!<3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	22. A Gift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After learning the horrifying truth to EXO's mysterious missing members, Yixing can't get them out of his head.

**YIFAN, LUHAN, AND ZITAO** crowd Yixing’s thoughts through dinner. Although he had no idea that the dinner Baekhyun mentioned was going to be _tonight_ (because he also had no idea that Jongdae and Junmyeon and Chanyeol were on a mission), he doesn’t even care. Rarely does one thing alone ever fully occupy Yixing’s mind, but these dead members entail so much. 

When Baekhyun held the gun to his head, smiling over him during his last night on Earth, Yixing had thought he was going to die. When he had gotten to the spaceship and was ushered down the decrepit hallways, Yixing had thought he was going to die. However, everything changed once the door opened to reveal seven pajama-clad teens. It suddenly became a movie; where Yixing couldn’t die. It proved to be true, considering that he was well protected, the members were basically college frat boys, and Yixing lived in a technological paradise. Even with the rigorous training, a daunting ‘mission’, and time over time of his mind being utterly blown (often with fear), Yixing had never truly grasped the prospect of him being in danger of _death._ Of the punctuality. Perhaps it’s from the surreality of the place, in which people in surreal places don’t die. In which they’ll return home, and it all ends up being a dream.

But then suspicions started to rise. But then RD_06 happened. But then Yixing found out that Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao are all dead. Gone. Deceased. 

The glass fortress of surreality has shattered and a different kind of reality permeates. 

Yixing _is_ in a dangerous situation. He always has been. But it’s taken learning that three of the people here are dead to truly understand that.

 _The people here…_ He thinks as he looks around the dining table. In celebration of Jongin’s recovery, an all-chicken dinner had been prepared. (All chicken as in _all_ chicken: chicken vegetables, chicken rice, chicken muffins, chicken noodles, chicken plates, chicken utensils, chicken water, and the entrée: chicken chicken. Vegetarian Minseok is _not_ impressed). Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao used to be a part of this crowd. They were just like them. They were late high school to early college aged guys; just beginning life as an adult. They were captured, stolen from whatever situations they were in, but they still made a home here. Made bonds with these guys. 

Yixing remembers Kyungsoo’s face when telling him about it. That it’s painful to talk about. However, Yixing likes Kyungsoo, so he didn’t push any further than the facts. Now that he knows for sure, he can get different information from everyone, ultimately getting to know who Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao were without hurting anyone too much. 

Considering that all eight were in on keeping this a secret from Yixing, they must have died not too long ago, too. It’s baffling to Yixing how each of them have kept in grief so easily. Or hid it so effectively– have there been nights, when Yixing was asleep, that Jongdae came in crying not because he couldn’t beat RF on the racer game, but because he misses someone? Is the term ‘friend’ with the hesitance in front of it told to Yixing actually referring to one of them? _A…_ friend _told me that, Yixing._ It’s crazy to think about. Yixing usually catches on to these kinds of things, but this time, he really had _no_ idea.

“Yixing, are you okay?” 

He looks up to find Chanyeol staring at him, big eyes wide with concern. A gesture to his full plate. “You’re not eating– Oh, are you vegetarian too?”

“Oh.” Yixing remembers what Kyungsoo had told him. _Don’t mention it at the dinner. Just let them know one by one, so it’s more of a diffused chaos. And if anyone asks, RF told you._

“No, I’m not. Your body requires protein.” He forces a smile, taking a bite of the chicken chicken with the chicken fork (that won’t stop running down his wrist, but it’s not like the chicken napkin will help).

“That you can get from _other_ foods!” Minseok exclaims, throwing his arms up. “And meat just makes your risk for diseases higher, unlike the alternatives!” 

“Literally, shut up.” Baekhyun glares. “No one wants to hear your _animals are gifts from god and we should worship them_ mumbo jumbo _._ What are you, India?”

“No, I’m someone with a _heart.”_

Sehun giggles, dangling a rather dark and slimy piece on his fork. “I think this _piece_ is the heart. Here, want it?”

 _Squelsh!_

“YAH!” 

Yixing is further distracted from his thoughts as Minseok screams, flinging the heart off of him and falling off his chair in the process. Everyone laughs, even when Minseok gets up and yanks Sehun into a chokehold– except Sehun’s not laughing anymore because he’s suffocating. Soon, Junmyeon breaks it up, and Minseok stomps back to his seat as if _he’s_ the youngest. 

“You’re all disgusting.” He grumbles.

Jongdae from beside him gasps. _“Wha?_ Even _me?”_

“If you keep eating that meat, yes.”

“But I eat _your_ meat all the–“

“Okay! New subject!”

Yixing wonders where they had fit in. Who was Yifan? Who was Luhan? Who was Zitao? Which one was chaotic? Or were they all quiet? Were they ridiculously obnoxious, like Baekhyun? Or shy and nerdy, like Kyungsoo? Were they vegetarians? Were they dramatic? Did they date each other– oh my god, was one of them dating someone here who is currently alive? Yixing hasn’t thought of that. That must be _horrible_ , having your significant other die. Despite how selfish it sounds, Yixing hopes Junmyeon wasn’t dating one of them on the off-chance that he’s gay. 

“Guys.” Chanyeol’s deep voice brings him back. “Minseok’s right. It’s inhumane. Like, if you think about it, we’re just lucky that we happened to be the species that evolved into what we are today. It could have been the chickens. And I bet they wouldn’t be slaughtering and eating us, if we were incapacitated.”

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes. “That literally makes zero sense. We evolved because we were _advanced,_ not lucky.” 

“It doesn’t matter. I’m never eating meat again.” Chanyeol earns a smile and a thumbs up from the vegetarian.

“Suit yourself.” Jongin reaches over and – which is probably not the best for his scar but – grabs Chanyeol’s plate, dumping it on top of his everlasting pile. In fact, Jongin has eaten probably half of the table’s contents, now that Yixing thinks about it. Half the table’s contents made for _nine_ people. He bets it would still be the same ratio if there were twelve, too. And speaking of twelve, Yixing really should apologize for barraging Jongin for the truth. He's not sorry he asked, but he's kind of sorry he kept going until he made him cry. 

“That’s going to be hard, Chanyeol.” Junmyeon says. “Are you sure you can do it?”

“He means,” Sehun translates Junmyeon’s kind-hearted concern, “isn’t this just one of your phases?” 

“What? I do _not_ have phases!”

“Dude.” Jongdae snorts. “Remember that time you said you were going to stop jerking off because it kills babies?”

“Yeah...”

“And what happened to that?”

When Chanyeol reddens, face making a strange contrast to his blue hair, everyone bursts out into laughter. Even Yixing smiles, because now that Jongdae says it, Yixing _does_ recall that moment. It’s funny, too. Maybe in the future there will be more things he actually gets. More inside jokes.

What inside jokes were Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao a part of?

“Hey, I think jerking off is great.” Baekhyun defends. Yixing can literally see the heart eyes aimed at Chanyeol. “One, it releases dopamine, oxytocin, and boosts endorphins and your immune system. Two, it gets rid of all of the buildup inside of you so you don’t get diseases. Three, it makes you better at sex. Four, it–“

“So are you saying that one life is better than several lives?” Kyungsoo challenges. Yixing can literally see the dagger eyes aimed at Baekhyun. “Under the assumption that each sperm cell equates to one human, you’re basically saying you would sacrifice lives for your self-indulgence.”

Chanyeol did seem to be swaying Baekhyun’s way, but with Kyungsoo’s attack to moral righteousness, he frantically nods with his statement. 

“Yeah! What he said! You’re so smart, Soo.” 

“Thanks.”

“W-well,” Baekhyun stammers, “it’s not. Each sperm cell isn’t a life. It’s not even going into a woman’s body. So it can’t be.”

“No, Baekhyun, it can’t be when it’s all over the floor. Or your hand. Or a blanket. Or that spot on the floor in the near dorm bathroom you keep saying isn’t yours and refusing to clean, you animal.” 

“Because it’s fucking _not!”_

Although Yixing will have to side with Baekhyun on this one, Kyungsoo _is_ technically right. There's just the whole thing that sex in general releases around a billion sperm cells and only _one_ of them fertilizes an egg. But that is better than just letting them all go to waste. But then again, it's ambiguous whether it's actually waste or not, because the male body inevitably produces more and more sperm no matter what and the benefits of jerking off outweigh the benefits of not jerking off. Especially since it's a lenient scientific versus lenient ethical debate.

Wow, he hasn’t thought this hard about masturbation since three weeks ago.

Soon, Yixing gets sick of the chicken juice running down his arm. He stands, dismissing himself silently and heading to the sink.

“Please don’t be chicken water...”

“Hi.” 

“Oh!” Yixing jumps, turning to see Junmyeon’s smiling face. He’s so cute. He’s wearing this sweater that’s large on him so he has these adorable sweater paws, though they’re currently rolled up his arms. “Hi. You scared me. I didn’t hear you coming.” 

“To be fair, I don’t think you can hear much over…” The message is tacit. (“Jongin! I get you like the chicken, but take _his,_ not _mine!”_ “But Hyung, I’m _healing!”_ “And I stubbed my toe earlier but you don’t see me complaining, do you?” “That’s it! I’m going to cry.” “Do it, you big baby.”) 

“What was the mission you went on?” Yixing now recalls as he turns on the water. Luckily, it’s plain old H2O. No chicken. 

“We went to eradicate space rocks from an aquatic alien community. Basically, there was a bad meteor shower by Galaxy 042A,” Galaxy _what?_ “and a lot of places were made vulnerable, so we went and helped clean up.” 

“That sounds more like charity than a mission.” Yixing does an awkward pushing his arm against the counter and bending down to re-roll his sleeves up so he can wash his hands safely. He has no idea how Junmyeon has kept his sleeves that far up this whole time. Not that he’s been paying attention. That would be weird.

“Well, it was kind of both. First, we went to one that, in return, gave us something for the Tree of life, and then we went to other ones because RF said we could.” Junmyeon then looks to the sink, “Mind if I use it, too?” 

“It’s not my sink.”

He grins sheepishly, perfect teeth flashing. “Right.” 

However, perhaps Yixing should’ve said no, because he’s not sure he can handle Junmyeon standing _this_ close to him. Their shoulders graze, and four hands awkwardly maneuver around each other to try to catch the one thin stream of water, so it takes a painstakingly long time and a lot of accidental contact and _‘Sorry’_ s. 

“They actually offered us a bunch of treasures, too.” Junmyeon is the savior to awkward silence. “They were too kind. We couldn’t say no though, so we took a little bit.”

“That’s cool.” Yixing wonders what aquatic space treasures look like. Oceanic artifacts? “Is any of the stuff useful? Or is it just pointless gold coin stuff?”

“Uh, the second one.” He chuckles, retracting his arms and grabbing a towel. He hands one to Yixing, too. What a gentleman.

“Thanks.”

“Of course.” Junmyeon casts a wary glance back to the table (“Baek-baek-baek-baek-baek-bak– _fuck!”_ “Hah! My turn!”). “Say, you and me, out of here? I don’t know about you, but I’m all chickened-out.” 

And even though it wasn’t in the slightest bit funny, in fact cringeworthy, Yixing still smiles. Smiles because it’s Junmyeon and Junmyeon’s smiling. 

“Yeah.”

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

When they’re walking down the dark hall, Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao enter his mind again. What were Junmyeon’s relationships with them? Did he like them– well, it _seems_ Junmyeon likes everyone, but even overbearing kindness has its limit. How did he handle their deaths? How _is_ he handling their deaths? Was he very close with one of them and therefore Yixing shouldn’t ask? No, he’s still going to ask. He knows Junmyeon will tell him _who_ they were, in contrast to Kyungsoo who told him _what_ they were. He’ll ask whenever they get to where they’re going.

Junmyeon heads towards the dormitories and goes into that same exact room they had been in the last time. Yixing refrains from showing any outward excitement. 

“Is this your secret hideout, or something?” He asks as he shuts the door behind him. It has a lock. How nice. 

“Well, I guess you could say that.” Junmyeon heads towards the couch, flopping down on his back. He lets out a huge sigh. Is he okay? Did he have a long day? “I like coming here to catch a break from everything. There are plenty of rooms like this all over the ship, and I know everyone else has their private place too, but I’ve just chosen this one, so I’m still close to the members in case anything happens.” 

“That’s genuinely sweet and caring.” Yixing scrunches his nose. “You’re weird. I wouldn’t do that. I’d make it as far away as possible.” Junmyeon laughs, but he’s not really joking. Well, maybe he is, considering what happened the last time he strayed far from the main area. Should he tell Junmyeon about RD_06? He really wants to, but he also doesn’t want to put stress on him. What if he tells Kyungsoo, instead? Because Kyungsoo knows a lot about the technology here and can probably say something that makes more sense than RF’s ‘security malfunction’. 

Oh, look. Something shiny! 

Yixing goes over to the far desk, picking up what looks like a golden cotton ball. Among closer investigation, it’s actually a sheep. Or, something close to a sheep. The body is fluffy (yet solid?), with short legs, but the face looks like some sort of caricature. The first things he notices are the exaggeratedly distant eyes, large lips, and deep dimples. For some reason, it looks familiar.

“What’s this?” He asks, turning towards the couch. 

Junmyeon’s head pops into view. His brows shoot up, and he jumps over the back of the couch, gently taking it from Yixing (his hands are warm; Yixing’s are always cold; this means they are meant to be) as he chuckles.

“That’s– that’s nothing.” He says as he walks behind the desk, putting it in one of the drawers. 

“Okay. But what is it?”

“Just something I got from the mission, nothing really.” 

Yixing narrows his eyes. “Why are you acting strange about it? Is it special, or something?”

“Well…” Junmyeon then takes it back out. He turns it around in his hand, as if inspecting it. “Kind of. I was actually going to gift it to you, but then by the way you said ‘pointless gold coin stuff’ I figured you wouldn’t like it.”

Oh. God dammit! He shouldn’t have said that! What other deterring things has he absentmindedly said?

Yixing wants to reply, but what happens instead is _gift? Junmyeon is giving me a gift? A treasure that he got from another planet? I don’t know what I would use it for, but a_ gift! _What does that mean? Does that mean he likes me? Is this a proposal? No, Yixing, that’s stupid. He’s Junmyeon. If he was going to propose it’d be with a whole serenade and– stop thinking about that! You don’t even know if he’s gay… you just strongly suspect it. Wait, he’s talking. You should probably pay attention._

“I–I got it because I thought it looked like you, in a funny kind of way.” Junmyeon continues. “Here, look.” 

He hands it to him. And _oh! That’s_ why it looks familiar!

The dimples, the far away look, the lips, it basically looks like him in exaggerated gold! Yixing stares at it blankly for a couple moments before he starts to laugh, because the accuracy really is eerie.

Junmyeon lets out a tentative laugh. “Yeah– and, I mean, I know it’s useless. But I thought you could use it as a, like, reminder thing. I specifically remember how you said your security was being torn apart by this all, like how you were doing a lot of out of character things and feeling less and less like yourself… and maybe this ridiculous little guy can be a reminder of yourself, you– you know?”

Yixing’s face is indifferent _,_ but his heart starts doing all these things. That’s really sweet. That’s making him feel all soft and warm inside because it actually is meaningful (Junmyeon thought about _him_ and _his problems_ and _him!)_ and how cute Junmyeon looks right now all nervous is everything is just great! 

“That’s, again, genuinely sweet and caring. You’re weird.” 

“Well…” Junmyeon is now looking at the floor. “I guess it could be used to throw at someone if they’re being annoying.”

“Now that you say that, I just might like this.” Yixing laughs. 

When Junmyeon doesn’t, however, his eyes widen. “I’m joking, don’t worry. Joking. I actually do like it. It’s… meaningful.” 

Then, this makes him remember. “Oh! Also, I meant to tell you!” He’s suddenly smiling because, “I got my bracelet deactivated!”

“That’s great!” Junmyeon grins too, but then stops. “Wait– does that mean you’re lying about liking it to spare my feelings?”

“Oh, no. That’s not it.” 

Junmyeon squints and Yixing reddens.

“Seriously! I was thinking that because I was joking, because I made a joke and I couldn’t do that with the bracelet activated. Although I won’t have any use for it and it’s likely I’ll lose it because it’s so small, it’s cute. And has meaning in regards to my problems so I guess it is actually practical, in that if I look at it I think of ‘Zhang Yixing stay strong’ instead of ‘haha this little thing keeps making me laugh’.”

His crush beams like he had won the lottery, clapping his sweater-paws together. “Yay! You actually like it!” He then heads back to the couch, this time saving room for Yixing on one of the sides. “Honestly, I was hesitant the whole time, because you’re all _sappy is gross.”_

“Well…” Okay, so maybe Yixing doesn’t think that so much anymore. Maybe it’s different when it’s Junmyeon doing something sappy for him. Although he does cringe a little, it’s adorable and just makes Yixing like him even more. Besides, he already knows Junmyeon has an embarrassing side that he is only on the tip of the iceberg of. _All chickened-out._

He sits down, sliding his shoes off so he’s just in the wool socks (it’s either low cut thin paper-like ballerina socks or thick shin wool socks, there is no in between– however, there are weirdos who choose the former, like Jongin– oh, we never apologized to him, did we?). 

“That sounds like you have nothing to challenge.” Junmyeon quirks a brow.

“Yes, I do.” Yixing tries to quirk a brow back, but it just ends up in him looking very surprised. “It’s different when it’s you. Because then it’s nice. And I may have changed my opinion a little bit. It’s nice when it’s not too much.”

At this, Junmyeon’s mouth falls open, and he puts a hand over his heart. It reminds him of Baekhyun. “Aww, Yixing!” Mentioned cringes. “That’s so _sweet!”_

“Stop. This is what I mean.”

“You’re _awesome.”_

“Stop.”

“Okay, okay.” Junmyeon’s impish smile says he wants to do anything but stop. There’s then just a few moments of Junmyeon smiling at Yixing and Yixing smiling at Junmyeon. It’s not awkward. It’s nice. It’s kind of sappy. But nice.

But also, while Yixing’s scanning through his mind because he’d rather initiate conversation than stare at Junmyeon like a dork, he remembers the question he wanted to ask.

“Junmyeon, I hate to ruin the mood, but can I ask you something?” Yixing makes sure to give premonition. “It’s about something really sad.”

Junmyeon’s eyebrows kit, and he sits up into a criss-cross position. “Of course. What is it?”

Yixing, because he likes Junmyeon, doesn’t want to do what he normally does and just lay it out blunt. He’ll go through it slowly.

“Well, firstly, I know there are twelve members…” Yixing thinks Junmyeon is going to say something, but apparently not, so he continues. “I found this out from things I noticed and then just asking people from there. So I know it’s Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao who are… deceased.”

Junmyeon’s expression goes solemn and Yixing feels his face heat up. Shit, he feels so bad for asking. But there’s a balance between his want for the truth and his regards for Junmyeon’s feelings. Unfortunately, the afore tops it this time. Or, _topped_. Yixing kind of wants to take it back, now.

“Who told you?”

Kyungsoo told him to say it was RF, however, he doesn’t want to lie to Junmyeon. He doesn’t want to hurt Junmyeon ever again.

“Kyungsoo told me. But he told me to tell people that RF had told me, so that’s what I will say to everyone but you, because I trust you. But it’s not like he went up to me and said, ‘hey, three of us are dead'. I knew there were three missing members, so I was just asking him what happened.” 

Junmyeon nods slowly. “Okay… what was your question?”

“What were they like?” 

He looks up, perplexion written all over his face.

So Yixing elaborates. “I mean, Kyungsoo told me all of the factual things, but he never told me _who_ they were. As in, their personalities, ages, where they had come from, stories… I’m just curious. I know that you all know all of that about them, so I thought I should too. It’s probably difficult for you all to stifle your grief just because you want me to feel safe or something.”

Junmyeon stares at him and Yixing worries. Did he say the wrong thing? 

“That’s really… good. You’re a good person.” He says slowly. Yixing smiles, though he had thought it from a more practical and curious stance, but sure, _kindness!_ Junmyeon then takes a deep breath.

“Ah... Yifan, he was the third eldest, after Luhan and Minseok. He was the first here, though. He was here for a year before getting Luhan, and then me, and then Minseok.” So that means Yifan was abducted when he was around sixteen, was alone for a year, then with people for three more, and then died… “So he was kind of the all-knowing one. He had figured out all of the nooks and crannies of this place, so sometimes he would show me some places, and then tell me not to tell anyone, and then he’d tell someone else the same thing but forgot he did.” A smile, but it’s distant, just like the memory.

“Uhm... he was really awkward. I don’t think it was from being alone for a year, though. He was just an awkward person in general. Even when we got close. He was really kind once you got to know him, though. He was actually the leader. I wasn’t always the leader… until we had enough members to split into EXO-K and EXO-M officially. Then I was appointed the EXO-K leader. I was really worried, but Yifan helped me out…” 

Yixing can’t imagine being here for _four_ years only to be killed on a mission. One of those years in complete solitude, too.

Wait.

“If he was here for a year alone,” He interrupts the silence. “Then did he go on a lot of solo missions?” 

“Yeah, he did.” Junmyeon nods. “He told me about them. A lot of it was work to innovate Exoplanet, like manual labor, and collecting things to put on it. But then he started working towards the Tree of Life just before others came.” 

That makes sense. Yixing had thought that if Yifan was a pro mission-goer, then it’d be strange how he could have _died_ on one, but it seems he had done more work at Exoplanet. Besides, all missions are different. This one must have been very difficult. And speaking of Exoplanet… 

“When are we next going there? To Exoplanet?” Yixing asks.

“I’m not sure. You would have to ask RF.” Junmyeon answers. “It _has_ been awhile since our last restock though…” 

“Okay. Luhan?”

“What– oh, right.” Junmyeon chuckles at his own aloofness. “Luhan– oh, also, Yifan was really tall. Like, taller than _Chanyeol._ But anyway, Luhan was also Yifan’s age, and he came second. He’s– he was sort of like Minseok. Pretty mellow and easy going. Except that he had a really devilish side to him. He’d always put up an innocent act, though. Kind of like Sehun, but his innocence was more convincing, because he had a very gentle face. Him and Sehun became really close actually. I remember Luhan telling me that at first he just liked to see Sehun annoyed, so he’d always go and annoy him. But then they became best friends.”

Yixing agrees with Luhan. It is fun to annoy Sehun. But he doesn’t think he’ll become best friends with him anytime soon. 

“He had telekinesis as a power, so he would move things around and drive people crazy. When Baekhyun and Zitao came, they were unstoppable. Baekhyun would make an optical wall so you couldn’t see them enter a room, and then Zitao would stop time so Luhan could move stuff. I remember this one time they did that to me. But with my whole bed. With me in it. Asleep.”

Telekinesis is cool, but _stopping time?!_

“Stopping time?” Yixing’s jaw drops. And here he is with _healing!_ How unfair! Maybe he should’ve gotten here earlier!

No, joking. Joking!

“Yeah, Zitao had time control. It’s a really strange power. I have no idea how he mastered it.” And here Yixing is struggling to control actual substance! “Zitao came here the youngest. He came here at _fourteen._ So he would be Sehun and Jongin’s age now. Yeah, it’s crazy… He looked very intimidating, but he was really a sunshine, all cute and curious. But he was also a Wushu master. He had been trained ever since he was young, but was so humble that he only admitted it a month after continuously beating everyone in sparring.” There’s again that wistful smile.

“He was also very innocent, considering he was just fourteen when he came. So you can imagine what happened when Baekhyun met him…” Yixing frowns at the thought. “But even with Baekhyun’s bad influence, Zitao was growing up to be a good person…”

“You sound like a father.” 

“I _felt_ like a father.” Junmyeon’s smile falters. “As I do with Sehun. It’s just… they have– had– have and had,” Ouch, tenses. “it so hard, being here at such a young age. I’m glad I came when I was seventeen, and not an age like that, where I was still really growing. When Sehun came, he couldn’t stop crying… and Zitao was excited at first, because he thought it was like a movie, but then reality set in and he started to deal with a depression. He overcame it, though.” 

“... When did they die, exactly?”

“A little more than a year ago. RF would have the count. We were all shocked, especially since all _three_ died on one mission we didn’t even know they were going on. It was one of those late at night ones. And it’s just… 

“You probably don’t know it, and I’m sorry if you do, but do you know that feeling when someone dies completely unexpectedly, and then you just feel so _incomplete._ Because you never knew your last words to them were going to be your last words to them and you have so much stuff that you could have said but you didn’t, because maybe you wanted to wait or just never thought of it?” 

“I understand it.” Yixing nods. 

“I feel that. Every day.” Junmyeon’s voice breaks, and Yixing feels the largest bout of empathy he has ever felt. Someone else causing him that pang of sadness in his chest. Someone _else_. “It– it was kind of a humorous coping way between everyone, sharing what our last words to them were, because they were just so random.” 

“What were yours?”

“Mine were meaningless. To Zitao, it was ‘great’. To Luhan, it was ‘alrighty’. And to Yifan, it was ‘check it next time’.” 

The first two make sense, but Yixing needs context on the third. “What was he supposed to be checking next time?”

“Yifan thought there was something weird going on with the dryer because all of his clothes were shrinking, so I said it could be a setting or something.”

“Was it?”

“Yeah. Someone had turned it on high heat. I checked once I was feeling a little bit better.”

Yixing can’t imagine being in that situation of grief. Especially having to live closely with that and those grieving, and slowly having to heal with that memory. No, he doesn’t like that. Yixing would rather try to forget it.

And with this thought, there’s suddenly a dark scene in his head. Junmyeon’s hands are sliding down his arms, eyes boring into his with the utmost sincerity.

_Running away never works._

He would _rather_ , but maybe shouldn’t.

“That’s a really sad situation.” Yixing tries his best to give sympathy. He does genuinely feel for him, but he’s having trouble expressing it because everything he says sounds so damn monotone, as if he’s mocking. For once, Yixing curses his voice. “Like, devastating. It’s already sad enough you’re being ripped from your world… but to have things from your new one taken too. The only things you find real security in, other people, killed.”

“It feels like you’ll never be safe anywhere.” Yixing looks to Junmyeon when he says this. He’s looking at the wall.

“Sometimes, Yixing, I feel like it’s my fault.” Oh no. He’s one of _those_ people. “I was the leader, I was supposed to protect them at all costs. And I feel like the universe hates me or something, because I know what you’re going to say– I know that it’s ridiculous. There’s no way I could have prevented it.” Oh, so maybe Junmyeon isn’t one of _those_ people. Good. “But I still feel guilt whenever I think of them. I don’t know why. I shouldn’t be. But I do.” 

Because Yixing likes Junmyeon, he offers more than an _I’m sorry._ “Well… thinking about it psychologically… Is it your brain’s natural response? As in, from the beginning _guilt_ has been triggered whenever you’ve thought of them, so it’s overridden logic, so now no matter what, you feel guilty? Like when you love someone that is a bad person. Emotional response triumphs the logic.”

“... Actually, _yeah.”_ Junmyeon looks up. “That actually sounds exactly like it, Yixing. But I don’t know how to help it. I can’t control what I feel.” 

“Are you sure?” Yixing questions. In a sense, Junmyeon is going through what he had with his power. Mind over, well, mind. He doesn’t decide to share this though, because his situation doesn’t compare to Junmyeon’s in any way other than the concept. “I mean, for the most part, no. You can’t control what you feel. But maybe you could try, whenever the feeling comes, to barrage it with the facts. Nothing is your fault and you couldn't have done anything. And maybe slowly you would accustom yourself to that, and then maybe you wouldn’t feel it anymore?”

Junmyeon stills for a moment. 

“That makes a lot of sense…” He then meets his eyes. “Thank you, Yixing. Just… for letting me talk about it. The others don’t like to talk about them, and I believe they have a lot of bottled up things because no one has said much. I’ve tried to help it, but I’m one person. I can only do so much. So it gets suffocating for me, too.”

“I asked you in the first place.” Yixing says. “Also, I don’t think that is very healthy. For everyone to not talk about it.”

“Me neither. At first, it was just despondency, though we all grew closer because of it. Like, how tragedy brings people together. And for a couple months, we had talked about it. But then people started opting out and closing themselves off. I think they were afraid; are afraid. So now they’re just shoving it deep down inside themselves, instead of letting it out.” 

_Running away never works._

Yixing sees where he gets his philosophy. “That’s not good. That’s usually the thing that causes huge breakdowns, later on.” 

“Exactly. I just worry.” Junmyeon nods. “And also, it feels so… disrespectful, to Luhan and Yifan and Zitao. To just pretend they had never existed. I hate it. And sometimes, I feel as if they had come up with the plan to not tell you to rationalize their silence. I know they’re good people but… I was the only one who disagreed. So I’m glad I can talk about it here. I don’t want them to be forgotten. No one should be forgotten.” 

Because it’s such a definite statement, Yixing’s mind automatically goes to counter it. However, he quickly realizes he can’t find a reason against _No one should be forgotten._ Ethically, sure, but practically, AKA Yixing’s favourite and the Best way of thinking, no. Everybody makes an impact on the world in one way or another, positive or negative, and because humans are intelligent, they gear everything so it strives towards a greater good. Such as even tragedy, where lessons are taught and history books are made to tell children to never do something like it. So, it is true: no one should be forgotten. 

“It’s been a year.” Junmyeon sighs. “More than that. We are all better, no matter the way of coping or not. I think most of the people you talk to will be able to hold back tears, but I wouldn’t go barrage them with things like _‘do you miss Zitao’_ or anything. Not that you would.”

“As of now, I am only wondering what Baekhyun’s last words were.” Yixing says instead of _I kind of already have._

Junmyeon looks up in thought, then shaking his head. “Yeah, don’t know. You’re going to have to ask him. Oh, I do remember Jongdae’s to Yifan though. It was: ‘bro, are you seriously gonna sit there in your own defeat or go to the next game?’ Poor guy couldn’t catch a break from Dae.” They both share a small laugh.

Then, Yixing decides he’s going to lay off the topic. He knows it is saddening. He knows that in this situation, where the dead were killed, the bittersweet memories are perhaps more bitter than sweet. He knows Junmyeon is holding back something that slipped through his voice cracks. Every nerve in Yixing’s body tells him to comfort Junmyeon. Make Junmyeon feel better. Make Junmyeon happy again.

“I’m really sorry this happened– don’t say it’s not my fault. That’s not what I mean; I mean I’m sad this happened. And how you said that thing, about how everyone here just keeps shoving it deeper and deeper instead of letting it out, don’t do that. Talk to me. If it helps. I think you said it helps earlier, but I don’t know if you’re just saying that because you’re nice or if it does genuinely help. So talk to me or don’t, depending on which is true. And if it doesn’t help, then I am sorry for bringing it up. My curiosity overcame my respect, then.” Junmyeon glances at him at the last part.

Maybe it’s a good thing, too, to have just enough stress slide off Junmyeon’s shoulders so he’s feeling relieved, not regretful. Perhaps the other night Yixing had gone wrong in letting too much off of himself, and that was why he had a bit of regret at first. 

“Thank you, Yixing. And yes, it actually helps. It helps me remember, and not feel as guilty, but better. It helps me go forward.”

“Okay, I am always here, then.” He watches him across the couch, his face, his hands that are playing with his sleeves.

Junmyeon hums in response as he lets out a sigh. It’s a couple moments of silence before he looks up, a small smile surfacing upon eye contact. “I… originally had wanted to just talk with you, cause, I don’t know, you’re interesting to talk to, but now this, and the dinner’s settling… do you mind if we just sit here?”

“Yes.” It takes a couple seconds and a questioning look for Yixing to realize, “Wait, _no_. No. I don’t mind. Yes, we just sit here.”

Junmyeon chuckles, and Yixing’s happy he can lighten the mood without even trying (read: being dumb). He emits a soft noise as he readjusts himself, scooting closer to the center of the couch. Closer to Yixing. “Thanks. For me, it’s just nice to do nothing sometimes. To be at peace.”

“You mean sleeping?” A burst of confidence and Yixing sits himself right beside him.

Junmyeon smiles, “Well, yeah, that’s peaceful, but when you’re asleep you’re not conscious to feel the peace.”

“Ah, I see. So asleep but aware of being asleep.” 

_“No,”_ Junmyeon laughs, and there’s a soft punch to Yixing’s shoulder. However, it’s not just a punch, because the hand lingers and now Junmyeon’s leaning into him. “Not sleeping. Just because you sleep eighteen hours a day doesn’t mean there aren’t other methods of peace.”

“Woah,” Yixing feigns offense, “where’d you get that from? That’s Yixing Slander.”

A giggle. “Sehunnie. He said every time he goes in there he finds you asleep.”

“Didn’t you just say we were going to just sit here?” Yixing says instead of complaining about Sehun’s snoring. He’ll just confront the kid later, because who is _he_ to be complaining about Yixing’s sleep characteristics? He's a snorer! The bottom caste. 

“Oh, right,” The hand on his arm turns into an arm around his arm, and a soft cheek presses into Yixing’s shoulder. “See? I’ll talk to you and then I just can’t stop. It’s kind of uncanny.”

Yixing looks down at him, a blush spreading his face and muscles struggling to suppress a huge grin. “Yeah.”

 _“Yeah,”_ Junmyeon repeats, voice going soft and eyes flickering up to meet his and everything in Yixing melts.

This _can’t_ be just a bro-thing.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Somewhere in the night, Yixing feels a hand. 

It’s in his dream, where he’s back on his beige bed under the hideous quilt his mother made him and forced him to use despite the unbearable itchiness. The quilt-maker mentioned is entering his room at seven, opening the blinds to let the sunlight permeate the early morning. Breakfast aromas float into his room from the neighbouring kitchen, and like always, his stomach betrays him.

“Yixing.” His mother’s lovingly disapproving voice gets closer. There is soon a hand carding through his hair. “I know you’re awake. Get up.” 

Usually, he would still continue the act and pretend that the touch woke him up, but this time something is different. Yixing is a different kind of exhausted. So much that he is just going to lie here, even if he is pinched, slapped, or even dragged by the ear to school (this is all with ‘good intention’, of course). 

However, Ms Zhang does something different as well. Instead of the step one: pat, two: pinch, three: slap, and four: ear, she goes straight for a new target: his _neck._ Yixing’s eyes shoot open, trying to get her hands off but suddenly, he’s immobile. Not because all of the oxygen in him is gone, but because he’s not actually awake.

When the face of his mother starts to distort into something grotesque, Yixing gets scared and shuts his eyes. Behind his eyelids, the new room is dark. Faux moonlight from the ceiling illuminates the sheep on his bedpost, which in turn reflects to the face looming over him. 

Three seconds pass.

Quickly snapping into focus, Yixing gasps, and when that gasp becomes stifled his hands fly up to his neck, where he realizes he is being held. By… _Baekhyun?_ Baekhyun is on top of him trying to kill him?! Once eye-contact is made, one of his hands releases the grip, a lithe finger pressing his lips. With being able to breathe again, Yixing goes from _I’M GOING TO BE MURDERED_ to _I’M GOING TO BE HURT_.

What is this? What is he doing? Didn’t he say he _wasn’t_ going to have sex with him? Yixing tries to sit up, but then realizes that difficulty breathing is not Baekhyun’s hands on his neck, but Baekhyun straddling his torso. He attempts to throw him off in some sort of kneeling maneuver, but the sheets constrict him; he had tucked them in too tight. (On the only bright side of this, at least his toes aren’t cold). 

_“I know what you did.”_ Baekhyun is whispering, and when Yixing gives up trying to find a way out and just looks up to his face, he realizes that Baekhyun isn’t holding his usual playful smile. His freak-out level slowly inclines back towards _I’M GOING TO BE MURDERED._

“What?!” Yixing shouts, only to be slapped by a hand to his mouth. He tries to tear it off, but Baekhyun is stronger. Is he going to have to lick him? Yixing _really_ doesn’t want to have to lick him. 

“I know you told Kyungsoo about my plans. I know you’re trying to sabotage me.” At least his breath doesn’t smell, with the proximity he’s talking at. That’s the only other bright side of this. But what ‘plans’ is he talking about...? 

Oh, right.

_‘Also, some advice: Baekhyun is planning on asking Chanyeol out either before or after the next dinner when he catches him alone.’_

Because Yixing is currently in a dangerous position though, he’s not going to tell Baekhyun that he doesn’t regret it one bit. He’s not going to stick his tongue out or spit in his face, even when Baekhyun does remove his hand from his mouth back to his neck. Instead, he’ll listen to what he has to say, and then when he’s in a safer position he’ll call out for help to the other three people sleeping in here. How have they not woken up? How did Baekhyun crawl all the way on top of Yixing without _him_ waking up? God, he really is a heavy sleeper.

“I don’t know what your deal is, but do it again, and you’ll regret it. I’ll make your life _miserable,_ sweetheart.” The last part makes him cringe. The forced dominance via endearing nicknames only makes the attacker seem insecure. Or, rather, manifests it. Yixing _knows_ Baekhyun is insecure. He knows that his confidence is a front. It’s further proven by this threat. If Baekhyun were sure of his romance with Chanyeol, Yixing would be peacefully asleep right now. 

“Okay.” Yixing whispers affirmatively and nods once. There is much more he wants to say, though, especially since Baekhyun is currently at his prime for emotional vulnerability. Teetering between being a kind individual and damaging this guy’s self confidence, Yixing becomes decided when Baekhyun scoffs. 

“Or, shall I humor you?” Yixing raises his brows and pouts, doing his best at an afraid expression. “B-Baekhyun, please– _please_ don’t hurt me. I promise, I’ll never ever _ever_ get in between you and Chan–“ 

Suddenly, his hair is yanked. Although he hasn’t been too surprised at Baekhyun’s genuinely emotional and pissed side, he wasn’t expecting _that_ , nor the amount of pain it inflicts. Yixing yelps, reaching up to try to get Baekhyun off. 

“Don’t you–“

“Help!” Yixing shouts, and Baekhyun’s other hand releases to slap over his mouth. The bed squeaks as he struggles to make as much noise as possible. With both of Baekhyun’s hands now occupied, Yixing musters a hard shove to his chest. All of the weight on him is suddenly lifted, as if he had just emerged from water after nearly drowning. 

_THUD!_

Yixing’s eyes widen as he sits up, peering over the side of his bed to see a prostrate but not religiously Baekhyun on the floor. On the bed across from his, the comforter rustles and Jongdae’s blonde bed-head pops out.

“What… going on…?” His voice is an octave deeper which momentarily confuses Yixing. Jongdae squints at Baekhyun on the floor, who is turning onto his back with a pain-filled groan. “Baek? What are you…”

“I think he’s trying to kill me.” Yixing pulls his knees to his chest, resting his chin on them. Jongdae angles his neck upwards to find him, then back down at Baekhyun, and then he returns back under the covers. A moment later he reemerges, this time with a sleepy Minseok. 

Then, Yixing hears Sehun’s groggy voice. “Shut up, I’m trying to sleep…” He looks to where the guy is lazily waving a hand outside of his sheets.

“Baekhyun…?” Minseok sits up. When no answer is given, he then kneels onto the floor like a doctor. Just as he starts saying something, though, he is interrupted.

“Are–“ 

“He pushed me!” Baekhyun’s shout startles everyone in the room, and Yixing hears a smack over from Sehun’s area.

 _“God dammit,_ what’s… Baekhyun-hyung? _What_ are you doing?” Sehun rubs the sleep from his eyes and the pain from his head, then giving Yixing a suspicious look. 

Yixing puts on the innocent act, though he pretty much _is_ innocent, besides the telling Kyungsoo about Baekhyun’s plans to confront his crush hence breaking his one-sided trust thing. “Baekhyun was on top of me when I woke up around two minutes ago and so I got scared and pushed him off of my bed.”

“Dude, the hell are you doing in Yixing-hyung’s bed?” Jongdae leans forward to snake his arms around Minseok’s waist and bring him onto his lap.

“Yeah, that’s weird.” Sehun agrees. 

“If you’re going to bone him, at least do it when he’s awake.” 

Yixing glares at Jongdae, who ducks behind Minseok’s back and points at his boyfriend’s face, but it’s obvious from the way Minseok’s concerned with Baekhyun that he didn’t catch any of it in the first place.

“I’m not–“ Baekhyun stands up, using Yixing’s bedpost for support. When Yixing scoots back to the side opposite, Baekhyun’s mouth falls open, offended.

“What, do you think I’m going to kill you, or something?”

“Yes! That’s _exactly_ what I think! I woke up with you _choking_ me.” He makes sure to add the last detail to cause:

“Wait, what–“

“Hold up–“

“Baekhyun, _what?”_

At all of the clamor, Yixing sees Baekhyun’s composure twitch. He glares daggers, knives, spears, machetes at him; but Yixing remains apathetic. They both know Baekhyun cannot do anything now that everyone’s awake. 

“Baekhyun,” Minseok tries again, “what were you–“

“Shut the fuck up!” Baekhyun snaps, turning to the taken aback pair. “It’s literally, like, none of your business? Why the hell are you so nosy? And stop with the PDA, this isn’t high school.”

Sehun interjects, “But _you_ came in and woke us up at–“

“Sehun, respect your elders, you insolent child. God, will you ever learn some fucking manners?” To Yixing’s surprise, Sehun submits and looks down. He reasons it was because he attacked his age. What if he’s so sensitive about it because it was part of their _‘toughening up Sehun’_ regimen Jongin mentioned?

“You know what? Fuck you all.” Baekhyun makes a beeline towards the door and Yixing glances at the sheep on the top of his bedpost. If he throws it hard enough, maybe he can knock the guy out.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he lets Baekhyun storm out, the machine doors closing softly behind him. The contrast is funny, and Yixing smiles to himself.

After a moment, Jongdae speaks. “The hell was that all about?” 

Wiping any trace of happiness off of his face, he shrugs. It takes him a moment to brave the lie. “I really don’t know… He’s mad at me, for some reason. He will get over it.” He then looks to the lump of Sehun, who has retired back to his covers. “Sehun, don’t worry. You did nothing. _Baekhyun’s_ really the insolent child, here.” 

A face peeks out and smiles mirthfully, “Thanks. Goodnight, Yixing-hyung.” 

“Goodnight.” Yixing realizes he hasn’t felt so powerful until now. Until now, where the laughing stock of the situation is _not_ him, for once. Maybe this is where Yixing will start to fit in, will start to feel loved and appreciated and will stop being such a mess. Perhaps it’ll start to be easier to be himself, again?

Yixing decides that he should untuck his sheets in preparation for any more late-night confrontations, so he yanks them all out before settling back in. This is short lived. Five minutes later, he’s up and out of his bed and going around the sides of the bunk to assure everything is air-tight. He gets complaints from Sehun. 

“Hyung, be quiet. I’m trying to sleep.”

“It doesn’t seem like Minseok-hyung and Jongdae are having trouble with that.” Yixing casts a glance to the Mindae bed. “It’s just you.”

“I don’t care. Be quiet.” 

“I’ll be quiet the night you stop snoring.”

And then Yixing is able to re-tuck-in the rest of his sheets in peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another dinner, another scene of questionable dialogue  
> and some more yixing crushing hard on jm and baekxing hating each other same old same old
> 
> however, most importantly, we've gotten to know the three missing members! well, gotten to know them as much as talking to junmyeon can give. what a shame yixing doesn't get to experience exo with the three of them in it, what a shame they had died overnight.... .. . .
> 
> ok thank you for reading!! <3<#


	23. Yixing's Suffering Continues Blah Blah Blah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How life in EXO normalizes for Zhang Yixing.

**DESPITE THE SPACE-GOLD SHEEP** that now sits on the corner pillar of his bed, it’s more and more difficult to stay himself.

Minseok decides that daily trainings are absolutely necessary. Yixing disagrees with this, of course, but no matter the extent he goes to, he cannot avoid it. The cat-eyes are what he wakes up to every single morning for the next month despite desperate attempts to sleep in places nobody would even imagine looking (“Oh, Yixing, what a pleasant surprise. I was about to go looking for you. Are you really so excited that you slept in the locker?” Yixing was sore for the rest of this day even _before_ the training). Early mornings exacerbate the hell he’s put through; whether it’s a full day of non-stop sparring where he doesn’t get a single hit, the Three Hour Run except it’s four hours and it’s not only on the treadmill, but also through the whole spaceship where onlookers point and laugh, that ‘fun’ game where Yixing has use every single weight machine at five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, and so on pounds, or Minseok’s absolute favourite (Yixing would tell this guy to get a hobby, but it's clear indulging in this sadism is what keeps him happy) in which Yixing does a plank over metal prongs charged with electricity so if he sinks in the slightest he will not only be poked, but shocked out of his wits. Upon first seeing this, Yixing almost cried. Then he did.

As a result, hunger and fatigue started to grow exponentially. Two meals a day suddenly left him starving, so he bumped it up to four. He usually sleeps the above-average nine or ten hours, but now he sleeps twelve not just when he’s tired or pretending. Minseok’s regimen quickly begins to occupy most of his time. One half of the day Yixing would suffer to the hands of exercise and the other half he’d try to regenerate so he’d have an easier time the next day, and then the other half he’d be with Kyungsoo trying to master Cell Regeneration, and then the other half he’d be doing random things with the members or talking to Junmyeon in that one room. But there are only two halves in one day, so Yixing struggles to fit all of this in because he is not Hermione Granger from Harry Potter so he doesn’t have a time turner and he also is not Zitao so he cannot make time or whatever Zitao could do and Zitao can’t help him anyway because he is dead. 

During the few breaks Yixing could beg out of him, Minseok _always_ flaunts his power. They go something like this:

Yixing would gasp for air as he collapses onto the floor, then realizing he’d have to get up to get water to hopefully not faint. Within these two minutes– or two minutes and thirty seconds, if his trainer was feeling generous. He’d struggle against screaming muscles to just stand, let alone walk all the way over to the other side of the gymnasium to get the bottle he had probably forgotten to bring over. Minseok would follow behind, not offering any sort of help if he stumbled.

When he’d finally procure his water, downing the whole thing in a good ten seconds, Minseok would be doing something with frost. He’d make it snow on his forehead, flakes landing on the beads of perspiration acquired while Yixing tries to stare in envy without his pig sweat flooding his sight, or he’d make a perfectly shaped ice pillow and wrap it around his neck, smiling in relief.

“Hey, can you make me one?” Yixing entreats. 

“’Can you make me one _Hyung?’”_ Minseok corrects. 

“Minseok-hyung, may you please make me one?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

 _“Seriously...?_ I mean– I mean why?”

“Two minutes is up!”

And no matter how much Yixing begged, he wouldn’t receive as much as an ice cube. Ever. It wasn’t long (twenty minutes into day one) before Yixing officially decided Kim Minseok is not a redeemable person what so ever. He's a _devil._ Yixing doesn’t miss the cheeky smirk on his face whenever Yixing would give a wide-eyed balk at one of the directions, or his laugh when Yixing would start to cry during the final stretch of a rigorous session. Even the cute cheers Minseok would give him during his struggles started to seem patronizing. He’s only saying that so Yixing won’t explode in a tirade of curses. He’s only smiling because it’s funny how pathetic he looks.

Only that Yixing quickly begins to look less pathetic. 

It is bad and good, having Minseok spend at least half of every day torturing him (except for every eight days which are _Jongdays_ so Yixing is free, but then Kyungsoo usually steals him). On the bad side: everything aforementioned. And more. However, there is one positive. _One_.

It's that soon, Yixing doesn’t hate to look at himself in the mirror so much anymore. 

Although his body _feels_ like utter shit, it doesn’t look like it. He starts to thin around his waist and torso, arms thickening and, under certain lighting and angles, definition beginning to show. He notices his proportions evening out; mostly in the shower where he can see about ninety-five percent of himself. It all happens fast, too. Within a week Yixing already loses weight, and a month later all of this extra meat has come onto his arms and he can suddenly bench press one-hundred pounds with ease.

He has mixed feelings about this, though. It’s hard work, and it's coming out with a positive result. It sounds nice, but Yixing doesn’t like this because it makes him realize this concept applies to many other things he had never done. Examples follow: he could’ve tried harder to be kinder, and would have more good friends which would have probably made him happier. He could’ve tried harder to get a job, and wouldn’t still be using his mother’s vehicle at nineteen. He could’ve tried harder at school, and would have gotten into the top university in Korea and wouldn't incessantly be called a failure by said mother. He could’ve tried harder to eat healthy and exercise, and would have looked like he does now years ago. He could’ve easily overcome _but is it really worth it? It's not practical_ to achieve something, but it’s too late, now.

So, to prove to himself that he hasn’t been thinking the wrong way all this time, he stops.

The small flame of a sort of passion kindled over the past month dissipates. The inner voices of _you’re so pathetic_ never bothered him that much, because Yixing had an excuse: he has never done it, tried, so of course he sucks. But these new inner voices of _you’ve always been pathetic_ definitely do, because they begin to apply to everything else and, for that, he has no excuse: he could have always done it. He has always had the opportunity to be nicer, get a job, do better at schoolwork, eat healthy and exercise, he simply just didn’t because he decided the results wouldn’t be worth it, and, besides that, perhaps he was afraid of failing. But when he’s looking at himself in the mirror getting a body he didn’t even want in the first place, it puts into a microcosmic perspective how much better he could be, and it kind of frustrates him. Yixing was completely fine before all of this saving-the-universe stuff, so why should it change now? How come he suddenly wants to be better and regrets having never done so? 

Once he reaches certain numbers, Yixing no longer tries to improve. He stops complaining so much and simply stops when he reaches his discomfort point, regardless of how much Minseok yells. He remains conservative, hoping that this will take everything back and make Yixing right: that he’s not dumb for smothering his potential; that it’s not _wasting,_ it’s simply _not using_. However, this only makes it worse. Yixing begins to dread mornings not because of the training, but because of the thinking.

Minseok soon notices his lack of effort. One day, during sparring, he just sits down. In the middle of the match. 

Yixing stills, brows furrowing as the cat-eyed man settles into a criss-cross position. He doesn’t lower his hands, suspicious that it's a trick. Thirty seconds prove him wrong, and he sits down too, figuring whatever this is, he will take the break.

“What’s gotten into you?” Minseok asks.

“Nothing. Why?” The adrenaline rush after wanes with each lie. Maybe Yixing should lie more often. It would prove the technology to be a complete backfire, so maybe he will, just to spite everything. 

“You’re sparring is half-assed.” Minseok is never afraid to call him out on his low effort. Or low ability. _Wow, Yixing, and I thought I had seen the worst of endurance, but here you are._

“You think that’s half-assed?” Yixing tries to sound offended as if he were actually putting in one-hundred percent, but Minseok isn’t fooled (this time– often he is, but that is becoming less common). 

“Yes, it is. You’ve always had trouble with effort. And it’s spiking, just as you’re really improving. Why?”

“I’m not. I am putting in effort.” He’s not going to open up to Minseok when he can’t even open up to himself. Besides, back to the last parenthetical: Minseok's not very wise.

“Not as much as you could be.” Same thing with everything else: Yixing could have tried harder. But it’s too late now, isn’t it? “Why?”

“I’ve been tired.” 

“For a month?” 

Ouch. “Yes.” 

“That’s bullshit.”

“Do you have any idea how hard your training is?” Yixing snaps. “I’m no Jongin or Sehun. I didn’t come here athletic. So I’m inevitably struggling.”

“Do you think you’ll never improve, or something?”

“No. I have improved. I know I have.” Yixing doesn’t need to give any examples. 

“Then what is it?”

“I am just lazy.” After the statement, Yixing stands, signaling an end to the discussion and taking the opportunity to get his water. He downs the last quarter, relishing in the cold feeling to his burning throat.

Turning, he’s met with a glove to the face.

He stumbles back, catching himself on the bleacher. Minseok stands above him, hands on his hips like a disapproving mother. A sting quickly settles in his cheek. And all he did was get a drink! 

“I never said you could get water.” 

“So you _punch_ me?!” 

Fortunately, Kyungsoo quickly gets that Yixing really _hates_ Minseok and his sessions and starts to prepare power trainings that ‘coincidentally’ conflict with the physical ones. Even if Yixing makes far less progress with his power than he does physically (one hour and he is still holding peach juice for around two seconds), he really enjoys talking to Kyungsoo. Like a massive planet and a random piece of space junk, they immediately gravitate together. Within a week he already knows best-friend quantity information on Do Kyungsoo, as he him. Yixing likes talking to him as much as Junmyeon, about all of those topics he had always thought he would never get to talk about to anyone other than Namjoon. Junmyeon is a better conversationalist, but Kyungsoo is far more like-minded and he finds they think very similarly. He can only take so much disagreeing.

At one point, Yixing shows Kyungsoo the burn on his wrist. Or, more like Kyungsoo notices it the first minute he sees him with the bandage off and asks. Yixing tells him it’s just his sensitive skin from how much he has lied because he doesn't want to talk or think about it because then he feels sick. Kyungsoo gives a look, but then nothing else is spoken about it. Similar happens with Junmyeon.

Minseok soon notices this pattern of schedule conflict and realizes what is going on. This results in him confronting one of their sessions. Though quite confused at first to see Yixing and Kyungsoo laughing their asses off, he then says something along the lines of _I-know-what-you-guys-have-been-up-to._ Like the good guy he is, Kyungsoo remains loyal and forces Minseok out of the room via uprooting the floor. This kind of ends in a fight. Which kind of ends in Yixing never hearing the end of it from the eldest. Sometimes he swears the guy is actually thirteen. He looks it. He acts it. He is it.

And it’s not only Minseok that Yixing can’t catch a break from. 

Ever since the near probably-murder-if-he-hadn’t-screamed-for-help, Baekhyun has been following up with the whole making his life miserable thing. When in the presence of others, he treats Yixing with his normal flirtatious demeanor, but when they’re alone, he undergoes a vagary so large it’s scary. The hint of passive aggressiveness he showed before becomes completely manifest to the point where it’s clear he just wants to piss him off. Because of this, Yixing tries to avoid one-on-one with him, but it’s almost as if Baekhyun goes out of his way to be with him. And then he will constantly remind Yixing how useless he is, ridicule his suffering as a newbie, try to get under his skin, mess with whatever he is currently doing, make everything so difficult, etc. When Yixing does get fed up, however, Baekhyun will put on a smile and saccharine voice, as if he wasn’t just using his power to blind him.

This is when Yixing confirms the hunch he has had ever since he saw the fighter pilot janitor at the front desk in the rundown hotel: Baekhyun really _is_ some sort of psychopath. He goes to his two most trusted sources to corroborate this:

“Hey, Kyungsoo. I have a question about Baekhyun.” 

“What?” 

“Is he bipolar or is he simply volatile or is he psychotic or is he just a really good actor?” 

“All of the above.”

And:

“Hey, Junmyeon. Can I ask you something about Baekhyun?” 

“Yes, of course.” 

“Does he have a genuine mental complication such as anger issues or is he just a very bitchy and volatile person when you’re on his bad side?”

 _“Yixing,_ that’s so mean. How could you say that?” 

And because of the lack of sufficient response from source B, Yixing – a bit nervously; he notices that sort of involuntary reaction whenever near – goes to source C: 

“Hey, RF. Does– does Agent Hyunee have a mental complication or is that just his personality?”

“Agent Hyunee has no mental complications. However, he is a difficult individual sometimes. I speak from experience. What is he doing to you, Agent Lay?”

After deciding to just forget the paper incident because nothing has happened since and this along with the dead members and the burn has quickly gone to the back of his mind from how busy he is anyway, Yixing is able vent his stress to RF_05. For a robot, _she_ (because of this, Yixing has donned her worthy of a human pronoun) is surprisingly sympathizing, and even said she would try to do something about it. Only that Yixing didn’t think _something_ would be electrocuting Baekhyun whenever he says something remotely passive aggressive, which ended with the latter freaking out and no longer talking to and even avoiding him. Not the best solution, but a solution, nonetheless.

And then there’s source B: Junmyeon. 

Fortunately and unfortunately, Yixing still has a crush on him. Fortunate, because having a crush on him often gives Yixing that warm fuzzy feeling and that is nice. And unfortunate, because having a crush also entails Yixing doing these out of character things like getting nervous for no reason or going out of his way to make sure Junmyeon is happy or thinking far more than he should about every interaction. With this, of course, Yixing’s immediate solution to the Unfortunate is to ask him to date, or something, because he is nervous and overthinking because of the uncertainty of whether Junmyeon feels the same way or not. However, it is the very same uncertainty that holds him back from doing it, because he doesn’t want to lose the Fortunate nor embarrass himself.

Yixing is uncertain because although Junmyeon does act rather intimate with him, he also does with everyone else. He also is touchy-feely with Sehun (and Sehun is like a child to him, as he mentioned, so does that mean he thinks the same way of Yixing?), asks about everyone else’s days and problems as well, gives compliments like they’re spare change. If this was exclusively just his treatment, then Yixing would be sure by now. But it’s not like that, so he can’t help but wonder if Junmyeon is just a too-nice individual. In turn, this is actually cruel because Yixing is metaphorically falling very hard and is only more confused and devastated when he does things like this: 

Junmyeon chuckles, pulling his knees to his chest. He rests his chin on his hands as he studies him endearingly, as if he’s the most special person on Earth– or rather, in the universe. “You know, Yixing, you really make me think…”

“Be more specific, please.” What kind of think? Like, with his mind? His heart? His–

“Sorry, I was trying to find the right words. But I’ve got it. You make me realize that conventionality is actually very impractical.”

Yixing knows what he means by this, but wants to hear it from him to see his side (read: for the chance of a compliment). “What do you mean?” 

“Well, just the way you do things. You do it your way, and it’s much easier than the normal way. Like your bluntness. And that a lot of traditional things don’t make sense, like denying your feelings for a crush, or something.” Eye contact is made at this part, and for a second, Yixing fears his brain has been infiltrated. Everything melts when Junmyeon smiles, then looking down. “I don’t know– I just think it’s cool. You’re cute…” 

Yixing can’t count the amount of times he’s had the thought: _this is not a bro-thing this is romantic he must like me._ So then he hypes himself up to do something, tell Junmyeon he likes him, but then sees his interactions with others and loses all confidence. He calls Sehun cute, too (“I don’t care how cute you act, you’re going to wash those even if I have to force you”). But their excursions to the room near the dorms, Junmyeon’s so called ‘hideout’, to hang out with just each other must mean _something,_ right? There isn’t anyone else Junmyeon likes to just sit with and talk about all sorts of things even if he loses every single argument (“Okay, fine, you’re right this time. But you won’t be next time.” Said last time and this time and next time and the rest of the times), is there? Junmyeon doesn’t discuss everything from the principles of modern society’s nature to his cats with just _anyone._ It’s only Yixing he redefines ethics with. And Junmyeon surely doesn’t share the most embarrassing deepest darkest secret parts of himself (such as [REDACTED]) with just _anyone._ Junmyeon doesn’t tell Yixing he’s the smartest and easiest person he’s ever talked to just to tell someone else that. Their relationship definitely means _something._ It’s just that the _something_ is a little ambiguous.

Also, completely unrelated, but Yixing has given up his Refusal To Masturbate In The Showers Because What If Jongin Shows Up Again. But then it becomes related when he’s simply trying to get that dopamine but then Junmyeon (and twice Baekhyun, but that is _not_ spoken of) pops up in his head so then the next time he sees him there’s that one-sided awkwardness of _I orgasmed to the thought of you,_ but he’s been getting through it. It also had a difficult start, as Yixing soon learned the lack of strength in his right hand doesn't apply to just his power, and he ends up switching to his equally as weak left, but it's at least healthy and still capable of development and also he can think about things like Junmyeon's ass so it's okay.

Because of all of this, Yixing has no choice but to wait for a definite indicator that Junmyeon likes him because he is too afraid of the other choices because perhaps he had underestimated this whole crush thing. It’s just that said indicator will have to be something like ‘Yixing I think I love you homosexually’ or a kiss, and those are very unlikely and it is also unlikely that there are eight billion people and two have attraction that is mutual in the first place. But Junmyeon just seems to like him so much!

In fact, Junmyeon is the only one who sides with Yixing when he finally faces Jongdae again at the Mario kart game.

“Seriously?” Yixing doesn’t mean to say out loud, but does anyway. It has become less and less exhausting each passing day to be interacting with everybody and more and more normal; comfortable even, sometimes. He scrutinizes each one of the seven who are on Jongdae’s side of the room, betting on him to not suffer the punishment of temporary slavery and doing the winner’s laundry for a month. Because of the lack of space in the rec room, Minseok and Baekhyun sit right next to Jongdae while Chanyeol perches on a table and Sehun tries to shove Jongin into a closet and Kyungsoo sits in the corner watching. The plurality waging on Jongdae was expected, but _everyone_ but one? Even Kyungsoo? Who Yixing had _told_ about his experience playing against Jongdae?

“What?” The traitor’s eyes widen when Yixing stares at him for a bit longer. “Why are you looking at _me?_ I haven’t seen you play.”

He considers this. “Okay, fair. But I thought you would take my word when I said I would’ve beat him if he hadn’t cheated.” This, in turn, gets uproar and a sneer from his opponent.

“I didn’t cheat, though.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No, I didn’t.” Jongdae doesn’t have a hint of joke in his voice, as if he’s genuinely arguing this.

“Yes, you did. Hindering your–“

“Okay, let’s not fight.” Peacekeeper Junmyeon says in frustrating timing as Yixing was _just_ about to prove his point with factual evidence. He’s about to go on anyway, but then Sehun also interrupts (and Jongin bangs on the closed closet door).

“Why are you siding with him, anyway? He’s just going to lose.”

“You don’t know that.” Junmyeon counters, “He could win. Besides, I believe him when he says he’d win.”

“He said what?”

“I said what–“ Last time Yixing checked, he had told Junmyeon he _almost_ beat Jongdae.

“Now _that’s_ some confidence.”

“You believe anything _anyone_ says.” Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Remember when Sehun told you he was having bad dreams just so you’d sleep with him?”

“You’re just jealous because that doesn’t work with your _boyfriend_ – AH!” Sehun is suddenly sent crashing into the closet. Jongin, who Yixing realizes had teleported out of it, slams the door, calling to Kyungsoo.

“Hyung, help me keep this shut!” Jongin shouts over Sehun’s protests. Kyungsoo nods, immediately getting up and lightly laying a hand on the doorknob. Suddenly, it turns a grey color. A few moments later a substance comes spilling under the crack of the closet door, and Yixing realizes it’s _dirt._

 _What the hell are you doing?!_ Comes out in a muffled “ _Whatt’a hail areyu doen?!”_

Kyungsoo’s face falters, lips pressing into a flat line as he removes his hand from the door and swipes the dirt into the corner with his feet. He throws a rug on top of it, looking around conspicuously. Yixing is pretty sure he’s the only one who saw, though.

Meanwhile, Jongdae barks out a laugh. “Keeping you quiet!”

 _“Disses pullying!”_ Yixing watches Junmyeon half-smile in mirthful disappointment. When he catches him staring, he grins.

“Okay, so _anyways._ ” Baekhyun stands, getting in front of the television that has had the game loaded for at least ten minutes now. “Let’s get down to business: I’ll be the hot flag boy. Chanyeol, you be the hot referee.” At this, Chanyeol grins and claps, and Baekhyun just watches for a moment.

“And–" He shakes from his daze. "And Jongin, you be the hot snack-getter. Or snack. Either works.” A ‘Got it!’ and then he’s gone.

“Kyungsoo, you be the hot security guard.” The Hot Security Guard gives him a look as if he’ll be the next person he throws out. “And Sehun will be the hot trashbag who thought they could get in without paying.” _(“Fuh kyoo!”)_

“Minseok, you be the hot boyfriend to Jongdae the hot racer.” Minseok laughs, wrapping his arms around Jongdae from behind and pulling him back into his chest (“Hey, I need to focus!”).

“Junmyeon, you be the hot not-boyfriend to Yixing the okay-looking _loser–_ I mean opponent.” The last part gets a couple laughs.

“Seriously?” Yixing narrows his eyes. Not that he thinks his visuals are stunning or anything, but it’s just that Baekhyun had called everyone else hot to explicitly single him out to make him feel bad.

“I said _okay._ And that’s being quite generous, Hyung~” Baekhyun shrugs his shoulders upwards with a cutesy grin, then making his way over to sit next to Chanyeol The Hot Referee. On the bright side, though, nobody laughs, and Chanyeol The Hot Referee even gives him a dirty look. 

Baekhyun quickly diverts to talking about the terms and conditions of the race, starting with, “So, racers, today you are brought here by public demand of competition.” And ending with Yixing doesn’t know because then he feels hands on his shoulders and lips near his ear.

“You got this.” Junmyeon’s breath tickles his neck and sends an exciting chill down his spine. “I believe in you.”

 _“–Hey!_ No cheating! I see you whispering!”

Because Yixing refuses to show fluster, his automatic response is to counter the statement. “That’s putting a lot of pressure on me. Are you saying I’m going to win?”

“Oh.” The hands on his shoulders begin a casual pre-game massage. “Crap, I’m sorry. Honestly, I don’t mind the outcome. I don’t mind doing all the laundry. I pretty much do it anyways. It’s really nothing, don’t worry.”

“So now you’re preparing for my failure? Are you saying I’m going to lose?”

Although a smile grows across Yixing’s face, he still regrets being cheeky when Junmyeon’s hands stop, then lightly hitting the back of his head. “Yah, don’t be like that.”

 _“–Stop talking!”_ Baekhyun snaps, gaining their attention. “You’re jeopardizing the integrity of this.”

Junmyeon says it before he does. “But Minseok-hyung and Jongdae are talking as well."

As if scripted, Minseok and Jongdae both look up from their cuddle-huddle.

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun says, “but they’re in a relationship, so it doesn’t count.”

“What kind of logic is _that?”_ Yixing asks. He had originally thought there was one kind of logic, but here he is, saving the universe (though on a current hiatus to play video games).

“Baeklogic.” Baekhyun giggles.

Jongdae snorts. “That’s dumb.”

“Jongdae, I’m _helping_ you here. I’d think you would at least be appreciative.”

“I am, whore.”

“Doesn’t seem like it, who–“

“Hey guys!” Jongin is suddenly standing in front of the TV, a couple party bowls in his arms with a family-family sized bag of hot cheetos waiting to be opened. He grins proudly. “I even brought bowls, because I know Minseokie-hyung likes bowls.”

“Jongin, have I ever told you how much I love you?” Minseok pushes away his boyfriend’s creeping face to grab the large bowls, laying them out for Jongin to distribute the cheetos. When Jongdae immediately goes for one, Minseok slaps his hand.

“You’re kidding yourself if you think I’m going to let you get some greasy ass cheeto hands on the controllers.” At this, Yixing also retracts his hand, wiping it on his pants for extra measure. Now that he says it, Yixing agrees: greasy hands will only obstruct him from his chances of victory. Also, he’s quite afraid of Minseok.

Jongdae lets out a whine, “But _why?_ You can just clean them!”

“Because I don’t want to and I _know_ none of you are going to.” Everybody avoids the feline-eyed glare.

“Can we start already?” Jongin complains, looking up at the television. He’s now sitting on his knees, _right_ in the way, eagerly waiting.

“Jongin, buddy.” Junmyeon chuckles. “You can’t sit there.”

“Why?”

“Because it blocks everyone else’s view.”

Jongin then twists around, looking around the room. “Oh, right.” He stands, joining Kyungsoo sitting near the back corner. “Hi Hyung.”

“Hi.”

“Okay, let’s get started!” Yixing is torn from his stupor by Jongdae’s loud voice which coincides with Junmyeon’s hands leaving his shoulders. He sits down criss-cross beside him, giving a thumbs-up that makes Yixing both cringe and melt.

“Alright–“

“No one asked, Xing.” Baekhyun gets a couple laughs as he uses Chanyeol’s shoulder to stand himself up, stepping gingerly over limbs to squat right between Jongdae and a scowling Yixing.

“Kay, ready bitches?”

“Ready to win.” Jongdae simpers.

“Rea–“

 _“Three!”_ Yixing’s not the only one seeing this, is he?

_“Two...!”_

_“One...!”_

_“Go!”_ At the same time, the Player 1 Jongdae presses the begin button, and then another countdown on the screen begins.

Baekhyun gasps in mortal offense as everybody laughs. “Oh my god! Who let this–“

 _“Begin!”_ Emits from the television as the word appears on the screen, finally enabling Yixing to put his now slightly clammy hands to use. He immediately pushes the gas. This time, he's not behind right away because he’s now familiar with the controls and format and that thing where you have to start turning the corner slightly before you actually reach it because the vehicle drags. He also customized his vehicle the same way as he had when he almost won for optimal performance.

Baekhyun huffs, exiting Yixing’s line of vision. This time, the map is space themed, because someone had thought it was funny to only remind them further of the place they’re held captive. It’s not even accurate, either. The stars are far too distant, and the planets are the basic different colored rocks. No mermaid aliens or giant space cats or anything! The latter is commented on by a sulky Chanyeol, who is then yelled at by Jongin– the quarrel ends in consensus that Félicette was cute, but mean (“So like Kyungsoo!”).

_“NEEEERRRRR!”_

Like prior – and every time it seems – Jongdae is far up ahead. However, unlike last time, Yixing is right on his tail. His years of experience from gaming has him seasoned for life. His fingers coordinating with the joystick is merely second-nature. Yixing’s position is apparently out of the ordinary, because A) Kyungsoo says his position is out of the ordinary, and B) there is little to no conversation save for Jongdae’s sound effects and gasps and curt words, as if everyone were watching the climax scene of drama rather than an EXO-mario-kart-thing match.

_“RRRRRRR!”_

Luckily, Junmyeon has the same idea that any kind of interaction with Yixing will distract him, so he stays silent the whole time. Only that this sort of backfires because now Yixing wants to make sure he’s still there. Once this happens thrice and Junmyeon is alive and well each time he stops.

_“AHA!”_

Yixing dodges a banana peel, getting a few small applauses – and groans – though it doesn’t exactly require much skill. Soon, they have lapped everyone by two, with Yixing still chasing in second. On the third lap though, the dynamic changes to a constant shift, in which every time Yixing gets in first he is given gasps and the stifled cheer from Junmyeon and every time Jongdae passes there are sighs of relief and “Jesus, hurry your ass up! I ain’t doing no laundry.” (Baekhyun).

Constantly glancing to the repeating decimal up in the corner (4/7), Yixing strategizes to hinder Jongdae. If he manages to do something now, he can get ahead and be safer rather than if he were to do it later. Inevitably, Jongdae will take a revenge with likeliness that it will be of detriment, but on the off chance that Yixing can zoom off, he should do it now rather than on the final lap.

After acquiring a spider web power-up, he tosses it backward towards Jongdae. He misses and gets a scream.

“FUCK! Yixing, you bastard, who do you think you are?!”

To this, Yixing doesn’t respond so as to not antagonize him.

“Are you ignoring me?! _Patronizing_ me?! Do you think you’re better?! Oh, you cocky motherfucker–“

“No.” Yixing’s calm voice contrasts with Jongdae’s shout. “Just focusing.”

He mimics him, _“Just focusing, meh meh meh.”_

This works in Yixing’s favor, because while Jongdae is saying how he is focusing he loses focus and Yixing is able to focus on aiming a second spider web in the correct direction which catches Jongdae. When he screams and the room promptly bursts into shouts, Yixing feels pride like never before.

“WAIT A MINUTE!”

“HOLD ON!”

“Jongdae, what the hell! _FOCUS!”_

“Bro that web stuff looks kind of like–“

“JESUS CHRIST!”

“Dude, catch up catch up catch _up!”_

“I am _not_ going to be a slave.”

“Oh my god, he’s not actually going to _lose,_ is he?”

Jongdae gasps. _“Lose?_ That’s impossible!” He forces out a laugh and Yixing knows he is losing his composure. Only if they were alone so Yixing could let out an evil monologue about how he’s going to most likely beat him because he’s on the sixth out of seventh lap and Jongdae is almost a full lap behind on the fifth. “I’m not gonna lose, it’s just a spider web, guys.”

“Yeah, but you _always_ dodge power-ups!”

“Like I said, it’s _just_ a spider web– _EEEEEEEE!”_

The desire to win builds up in Yixing’s chest as he nears the seventh lap and everyone starts shouting at Jongdae. He doesn’t remember the last time he has been so focused on something. On the straightaway he takes a moment to recall that it was either 1) the other week when Minseok made him do the electrocution plank thing or 2) the start of sixth grade when he tried to make a pigeon come back to life. But this solidly triumphs them both, just like how Yixing is pretty sure he is going to solidly triumph Jongdae right now, and see the look on his face, and see the look on Junmyeon’s face, and see the look on Kyungsoo’s and Chanyeol’s and Baekhyun’s and Jongin’s and Minseok’s and Sehun-when-he-gets-out-of-the-closet’s faces. There will _finally_ be something he is good at! (Because apparently intellect is not enough).

_“NEEEERRRRR!”_

When Yixing enters the final section of his final lap, he checks the map. Jongdae has caught up considerably, but is nowhere near any chance of beating him. This is when the room goes so silent that the quiet TV sounds and Sehun’s whimpering can be heard, though the second one is ceased when Jongin throws a book (one of the only, barely hanging on to intact, non-picture authentic pieces of literature books) at the door, “Shut up!”

It is almost anticlimactic, the way Yixing enters the final straightaway and Jongdae repeats a series of distraught _No no no no no no no_ s. Despite how much volume accumulates, Yixing still finishes peacefully. Like a nice sunny day's walk.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!”

“HOLY SHIT!”

“FUCK!”

“OH MY GOD!”

“DUDE!”

“HOLY BALLS!”

_“WHATF APPENIN’?!”_

“HE ACTUALLY…”

“AHH!~”

“BRUH!”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!”

Take that back. He doesn’t finish _peacefully_.

Junmyeon is the only one with a positive response, hollering a “YES!” before jumping onto him, scaring Yixing out of his wits. He just barely throws an arm out to not be completely tackled, but this doesn’t do anything to save himself from suffocating in Junmyeon’s embrace. Yixing can’t control his smile as he’s hugged tightly, Junmyeon then pulling back and beaming at him and he’s beaming back and–

“Holy shit, are you _crying?!”_

Yixing turns his head and Junmyeon crawls off him to see the commotion. Shockingly enough, everyone has gone silent, staring at Jongdae. The guy has secluded himself to a ball of defeat on the floor, controller strewn next to him. Minseok tries to wrench him apart, but soon gives up and sits back.

“Oh shit, he’s _crying.”_ Baekhyun says, and Yixing realizes he actually _is_ when the shriveled Jongdae trembles slightly, taking in a sharp breath.

“Oh, no…” Chanyeol then lies himself practically on top of him, large frame enveloping the ball of Jongdae. “Don’t cry, or _I’ll_ cry.”

“Me too.” Baekhyun joins at the other side so they’re both wrapped around their friend.

Yixing looks up to see that a curious Kyungsoo and Jongin have come over, distantly observing the whole ordeal much like himself. Junmyeon has gone in to comfort, joining Minseok in trying to unwind the Unholy Trinity’s pretzel to get to the despondent loser.

_“Whatf happenin!?”_

Jongin then disappears to tell Sehun to be quiet, and Kyungsoo stands there awkwardly for a moment before following to the closet. When Yixing is about to up and do the same, however, _he’s_ suddenly the bad guy. Half-standing Yixing receives glares like never before, mouths agape as if they’re mortified by his actions. Minseok juts his chin to Jongdae, strictly mouthing something probably along the lines of _apologize._

“But I didn’t do anything– _ow!”_ Yixing stumbles back from Chanyeol’s kick to the shin, an indignant tirade burning at his throat. His blanch is only met with an eye roll and a point to Jongdae.

 _I get the favouritism, but the blunt disrespect?!_ He suppresses a yell as he approaches Jongdae, kneeling. Like a parting sea, everybody moves out of the way for the interaction. Still curled up, Yixing can only see a blonde tuft of his hair. He doesn’t give it a pat in fear that his hand will suddenly get grabbed and licked, or something. Maybe bitten this time, considering the circumstances.

When a good five seconds passes of him sitting there blankly, he gets an elbow from Baekhyun and an angry mouthing of what he determines as _just say it!_

“Um,” Yixing doesn’t like being scrutinized by these people because from prior events he knows they are unfair judges and especially considering these prior events were five seconds ago he really just wants to leave. “I…” His eyes flicker to his bracelet, on habit.

“I don’t know if like, this game was a sense of your self-validation, or validation from others, or validation in general or something… or maybe you are not one for change… but you have lost, and I am not really sorry about that, but I do feel pity because you’re crying, although it’s not really my fault–“

 _“Okay!_ He means he’s sorry!” Suddenly, his ear is grabbed. Like a sixth sense, he slaps the arm, dodging out of the way because he doesn’t want to relieve the painful part of living with his mother and he hasn’t finished – the best part of – his apology.

“I’m not done.” Somehow gets everyone to stop.

Taking a risk, he lightly grabs Jongdae’s wrist. He surprisingly lets Yixing take it, but is so limp that Yixing has to awkwardly mend their hands together. Then, he recalls gamer etiquette to muster the best apology he can. This will make everything better.

 _“G-G,_ bro.”

In less than a second, Jongdae is sitting up, throwing himself over Yixing in a sob. Yixing feels tears soak through his shirt.

 _“G-G,_ bro.” He sniffs. _“G-G.”_

With Jongdae now on him such that his wracking sobs can be _felt,_ Yixing feels his chest clench with remorse. But it’s just a _video game?!_ And it’s just _Jongdae?!_ Yet, he finds himself rubbing his back soothingly. The others watch the exchange, Chanyeol clapping when they hug. It soon starts to get _real_ awkward, though.

“Also,” Yixing shoves all of the ‘mercy’ and ‘pity’ and those useless things away. “Not to ruin the moment, but you’re going to be washing this shirt, pretty soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you couldn't tell this was ye good ol time skip! sorry if it was boring! I put in that stupid asfuck video game scene to compensate LOL
> 
> thank you for reading and sticking with this!!!! <3 <3 tbh as the story goes on im getting a little less confident 😬 this is rly only my 2nd story and in regards to plot, I bit aloooooot off and I'm still not sure if it has been more than I can chew or not


	24. The Progress Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A progress check-in for team EXO and newest member Zhang Yixing.

**YIXING, LIKE THE** just and impartial person he is, exploits his award as he should. Junmyeon, like the foolish and manipulable person he is, does not. In fact, he complains about it.

“Yixing,” The other's voice is tentative, as if _still_ worried about Yixing's well-being despite the position of adversary, “I know we won the bet and everything, but do you have to do _that?”_

“Do what? Yah, Baekhyun, _down,”_ Yixing scolds as he readjusts to his footrest. Said footrest tries to protest, but the piece of duct tape over his mouth makes it rather difficult.

_“Mmmm!”_

Junmyeon glances between Yixing and his footrest with obvious discontent. Baekhyun can be seen through the translucent holo-table, though Kyungsoo quickly utilizes a solid black tab to drag over his presence. At this, Yixing gives a thumbs up, allowing him to come out of the wall-handstand. In all honesty, he hadn't expected EXO's compliance, but it seems here they take bets as seriously as they take cheetos.

“I see nothing wrong with it.” He likes Junmyeon, but he is not giving up his opportunity to treat everyone else like shit and is ready to justify it, even if it takes all day.

“It’s mean.”

“Conventionally speaking, yes, it is mean.” Yixing gives his only concession, “But were you not the one who had said conventionally is impractical? The other day? Besides, I imagine if we were in the losing position, worse would be happening to us. And it's not like I'm doing things _just_ to be mean excluding my footrest, I am simply relieving inquiry– oh, hey Jongin. You’re back!”

Jongin stumbles into presence, catching himself on the table. He slicks his sweaty hair back, forcing a smile because Yixing had told him to smile because it made him feel guilty when he wasn't. Jongin unloads another armful of miscellaneous items into the growing pile in the corner, turning for his next task. It has been about forty-five trips so far. Yixing wants to see the breaking point for his power.

“Okay, now go get–“

“No, Jongin, stay.” Junmyeon interrupts, beckoning the panting boy over. “Go hang out with Kyungsoo.”

Jongin presses his hands together, bowing his head in thanks as he heads over to Kyungsoo. ( _“–Jongin,_ don’t _sit_ on me! You’re all sweaty!”)

Yixing frowns at the sight, then looking back to Junmyeon. “You’re no fun.”

“It’s not fun for me to see them suffer.”

“Oh. I suppose that is where we differ.” As he’s saying this, Yixing switches his foot’s position yet again, making sure to dig his heel into Baekhyun’s neck at a painful angle. He then beckons Minseok over with some water.

Right now, he feels like one of those emperors in the dramas, but without the sexism and racism part. The only thing he discriminates against is Baekhyun, who serves as his personal pouf whilst the rest are either doing some strange thing out of Yixing’s inquisitive whims or totally free but still ready for any command. RF_05 should be here shortly to give them what is called a ‘briefing’ (“Hah! He said brief!” “Shut up, Chanyeol.”), but for now Yixing enjoys the kingship.

“I guess…” At this, Junmyeon looks down, and suddenly Yixing feels bad. He didn’t mean it _that_ way! He’s just having some childish fun! This isn’t going to cost him some major points with the guy, is it? It’s good for people to have a bit of difference.

“It’s still mean.” His eyes keep going down to Baekhyun and Yixing can’t help but think his footrest is sending some sort of SOS.

“Why? What is wrong with the explanation I gave?”

“Well…” This is the part where Junmyeon hesitates because he really _doesn’t_ have anything to counter the flawless argument. “Being conventional isn’t always bad. Just because they would’ve done the same to us doesn’t justify us doing it to them. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Of course he’s saying something generic like that. Sappy Junmyeon. “Two negatives make a positive.”

“That’s mathematics, not ethics.”

“So you want to get ethical?” Yixing raises a brow. If Junmyeon wants to get ethical, he’ll get ethical (but quite frankly, if Junmyeon wants anything, Yixing will get him anything– except for mercy on Byun Baekhyun).

“Then tell me this: individualism or collectivism?” Assuming that google is correct and Junmyeon was going to major in psychology, he’ll know individualism versus collectivism the same way Yixing does. “Of course, the second matters in cases where we’re a team, or whatever, but collectivism has no value in trivial things like this. It only matters in the big picture, like societal evolution and equal rights, but not Baekhyun being my footrest.”

 _“Mfff! Frrr!”_

Surprisingly, Junmyeon has something to argue. Most of the time he just looks down with a shy smile to surrender his position. “But the trivial things _do_ matter. We’re humans, not robots, so they matter _especially_ with collectivism. Trivial things affect bonds, and then we won’t be as good working together on missions and really important stuff. It’s the same as on Earth: teamwork.”

Huh. Okay, Junmyeon maybe perhaps kind of has a point. Now that he puts it that way, collectivism is a necessary ideology. Everyone needs to be emotionally intact with each other in order to get things done. But it _shouldn’t_ have to be that way. In fact, this is also why Yixing had made that stupid letter thing: to determine the personalities of everyone in order to not have trivial complications arise– but look what happened to that!

Because he can no longer argue the collectivism point, he quickly conceives another. “So are you saying that practicality should be excused to save people’s _feelings?”_

“Yes, exactly. Feelings affect everything. Again, we’re humans. So it may not _seem_ the most practical, but it’s how we have to deal with it because we have emotions and you can’t just shove those away, or, _run away from them.”_ At this, Junmyeon meets his eyes. Yixing has never before felt like hitting Junmyeon, but he does for a moment. Maybe he’ll do that angry-break-up-slap-but-then-turns-into-kiss thing. Or maybe not, because neither of those things are happening. “Or else it’ll all explode. So, in the long run, although dealing with trivial things seems like a waste of time, it’s actually not. Because we’re human, it’s inevitable, so we just have to take care of them. _Then_ you’ll have your most practical.”

Yixing has also never before been speechless in a disagreement, but here he is.

Usually, everyone – especially Junmyeon – argues morals. Moral this, moral that. With morals, Yixing can easily dominate with practicality, because morals are simply suggestions, whilst pragmatism is rules. But now, Junmyeon brings something new, because no one has _ever_ harmonized both morals and practicality. Or, more that no one has ever had the ability to go further than morals, to connect them to Yixing’s favourite thing and use his own medicine against him. Perhaps Junmyeon is smarter than he thinks– no, Junmyeon _is_ smarter than he thinks.

But also, that was kind of hot.

When Junmyeon quirks a brow, Yixing realizes he hasn’t countered anything. And he usually counters things right away!

“You usually counter things right away.” He reads his thoughts, a smirk playing on his lips. “Got nothing?”

Yixing’s face burns.

Yes, there’s being seen naked by your whole eighth grade class. Yes, there’s having a mohawk that had you immediately ostracized by your new school. Yes, there’s walking into a high-end restaurant only to have a dead pigeon drop out of your pocket. But there’s nothing – absolutely _nothing –_ as embarrassing as losing an intellectual argument. And then having the arguer, who also happens to be the strongest crush you’ve ever had, look at you like you’re a lost puppy, because he _knows_ you’re defeated.

“No… I’m just thinking about how to word this.” On the bright side, at least his bracelet is deactivated. He comes up with something feasible to buy him time to kick Baekhyun harshly so he makes a loud noise and then Yixing will get ‘distracted’ and then will escape this. Operation KB, for Kick (or alternatively, if things go seriously wrong, Kill) Baekhyun.

Fortunately, he is saved, but not by KB.

“Hey, nerds.” Yixing feels his chair wobble, and turns to see that Sehun has an arm supporting himself on both of their seats, Chanyeol right behind him. Sehun's holding a ruler that’s pinched a little bit down to something maybe the size of a miniature stapler.

“I got it. It’s seven point five centimeters.”

Junmyeon looks from Sehun to Yixing, because Yixing hadn’t exactly explained _all_ of the stuff he chose to do with 7/9EXO’s temporary slavery.

“Okay, thanks.” Yixing says to Sehun, then answering Junmyeon’s questioning gaze. “I wanted to know exactly how big Chanyeol’s ears are.”

“Oh.” He chuckles, and Yixing‘s face finally cools down because he seems to have forgotten about his fluster. “You could’ve just asked. We do it every couple months.”

“Why? That’s _weird.”_

“But you–“ Junmyeon stops himself, and then just stares at Yixing for a couple moments because the joke is tacit. 

“Also,” Sehun continues after a laugh. “Not to alarm you, but I think Jongin passed out.”

Alarmed, both heads snap in the direction, and Yixing can’t believe he had been so immersed in the argument as to not see Jongin on the floor, Kyungsoo kneeling over him and pinching his face trying to wake him. When Kyungsoo senses the stares, he looks up. Both him and Sehun speak in contradicting correspondence.

“Sehun _hit_ him!”

“Yixing-hyung, you exhausted him to fainting!”

Junmyeon gives a wide-eyed look to Yixing, processing, but then it softens because he looks back to Kyungsoo, processing, and then to Sehun, processing, and then that wide-eyed look is on Sehun, scolding.

_“Sehun!”_

“It wasn’t me!” Yixing sees the glare from Sehun to Kyungsoo, as if Sehun thinks he’s in a movie where the subtle things he does aren’t noticed. “It was Yixing! He had him teleporting everywhere just to tire him out!”

Yixing frowns at the finger pointed at him. “True, I did, but _actually,_ Junmyeon had him stop before he passed out. He was perfectly… sweaty and beat up. But still conscious. Also, it’s clear you hate him. So it’s likely you decided to hit him. And a witness just _said_ you hit him.”

Like a child confronted by two parents, Sehun turns from one to the other, trying his luck with, _“Junmyeonnie-hyung...”_

“I’m going to have to side with Kyungsoo and Yixing on this one, Sehunnie.” Junmyeonnie-hyung speaks softly. Yixing wouldn’t be shouting, but he’d definitively use a sterner tone.

“What?!” When Sehun practically shouts, Chanyeol backs away from the situation, finding a sudden interest in Minseok. “You’re trusting _him_ over _me?_ But he’s just a newbie!”

 _“Sehun!”_ Junmyeon snaps, gaining some authority to his voice. In fact, he sounds more offended than Yixing himself is. That’s sweet. “Yixing has been here for more than a month. He’s _not_ a newbie. And don’t forget that you were in his position not too long ago, either. Now _apologize.”_

Sehun’s face contorts in betrayal, but Junmyeon must have glared because he quickly chastens, looking down. The sight is funny, but Yixing holds in a laugh to not provoke anything else. Sehun angles slightly in his direction.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry, _Yixing-hyung.”_ Junmyeon corrects him. Yixing silently thanks him, because he had wanted to himself, but wasn’t sure who would get angry.

“Sorry, Yixing-hyung.” Sehun fixes it, but it still comes out in an indignant grunt rather than any actual regret.

“And you’ll be apologizing to Jongin when he wakes up.” Sehun flares up in protest, but quickly submits with just a look from the other. “Now go help Kyungsoo.”

After he leaves, Yixing blinks from his stupor. He looks to Junmyeon, amazed for the second time. “Since when were you strict? You would make a good parent. If you can handle Sehun, you can probably handle the plurality of children.”

“No,” Junmyeon laughs, back to his mellow self. “I’m just good with him. And everyone else here. And what he said was really mean. He doesn’t mean it, Yixing. I promise. He’s just being a brat.”

“I wasn’t emotionally damaged or anything.” Yixing smiles. “Don’t worry.”

“I didn’t think you’d be.” Then, there’s a small silence, and Yixing begins to worry that he’s going to–

“Anyway, back to what you were saying. You’ve had some time to think, right?”

“Yeah…” No… 

Maybe Junmyeon just wants him to admit he’s wrong. Considering Junmyeon is now status: smarter than he thinks, this isn’t unlikely. Maybe Yixing should just give him what he wants... or maybe that’s what he wants! Maybe he wants Yixing to think that’s what he wants so he can give him what he ‘wants’ which will overall give him what he wants!

Fortunately, he is again saved, but not by giving him what he wants.

The light buzz of conversations taper to silence as the door opens. In hovers RF_05, top just barely missing the edge of the doorframe (Yixing had forgotten how large she really is). Following behind her is a sulking Jongdae.

“Oh, RF’s here.” Junmyeon then looks back at Yixing, smiling as he places a casual hand on his arm. “You can tell me later.” He winks and Yixing finds himself reddening. He definitely knows.

Yixing just nods and focuses back on Jongdae. He looks like he got smacked upside the head by depression: wearing sweats and slippers, his hood looming over his head, the slight slouch, the bag of hot cheetos crumpled in his fist, the dust of which sprinkling his fingers and lips. His moping saunter is so melodramatic it’s comedic. Not that Yixing would laugh though.

“Yixing, stop laughing, asshole!” Suddenly, there’s a flick to the back of his head. Minseok comes out of nowhere, rushing to comfort his boyfriend.

Yixing has to tear his eyes away from the sight to not let out a chuckle, instead focusing on the giant robot that just came in. RF is making her way to the table when she stops in front of passed out Jongin and trying-to-help Kyungsoo and ‘trying-to-help’ Sehun.

“Why is Agent Kai unconscious? What did you do this time?” Again, the voice is too humanlike. The intonation of disappointment, but not any particular surprise, is spot on.

“Uh,” Kyungsoo looks up from the body to the robot. “Long story.”

“Could you just tell me so I don’t have to go check my databases?”

“Yeah. Basically, Jongdae played Yixing at Exokart–“ _Exokart?_ That’s a lame name. “–and there was a bet for who would win which included temporary slavery and laundry for a month and all of us except for Junmyeon bet on Jongdae however Yixing beat him so now everyone is at their service temporarily and Yixing exhausted Jongin so he was on the verge of passing out but then Sehun hit him and he actually fainted.” He says this all in one breath and for a moment it seems that Kyungsoo is going to black out himself.

“Noted.” RF then moves to the table. Whilst this is happening, everyone scrambles to get in their seat like a crazed jury. Jongin is haphazardly thrown onto one of the chairs, so his limp body soon smacks its head off the holo-table.

Only then does he spring up. “I’m okay!” He shouts.

At this, Chanyeol gets up to run over and hug him. “Good, I thought you died!” Jongin’s hands claw at his arms, trying to get him to loosen from his neck, it seems. Maybe he’ll pass out again.

“No–“ He finally wrenches Chanyeol’s arms off and reaches up to pet his head at an awkward angle. “You’re dumb. I wouldn’t _die.”_

That’s what’s said, at least. And perhaps it's the consequence of mere knowledge, but Yixing thinks he notices a flash of discomfort on some's faces at the joke. 

“Yeah… I know.” Chanyeol closes his eyes and grins at the pet, then skipping back to his seat. It only takes a side glance to know Kyungsoo is making oogly-eyes at the whole thing.

Yixing can’t help but wonder if a similar interaction had occurred with Yifan, Luhan, or Zitao. Everyone jokes about death until they actually die. Then they can’t joke about death anymore because they are dead and dead people cannot speak much less joke.

Kyungsoo is whispering something to Jongin, but other than that everyone has gone quiet, focused on RF’s next words.

“I was about to begin your progress briefing,” Chanyeol’s _Hah, brief!_ echoes in his head _,_ “But where is Agent Hyunee?”

Suddenly, a muffled scream emits from under the table and Yixing’s socked feet meet the cold floor. To the right of him, Baekhyun rolls out from under the table. His face has become beet red and black hair tousled, some strands clinging to his sweaty forehead. Yixing’s eyes widen slightly, because he swears just an hour ago Baekhyun wasn’t looking _that_ bad. He glances to RF, who is most definitely watching the whole ordeal but he can’t exactly see any expression on her face other than the camera eye. Because of this, he doesn’t feel guilty.

“Right there.” Yixing points to the panting boy on the floor.

“I am not going to ask. Proceeding…”

While RF begins talking, Baekhyun maneuvers himself up, which is rather difficult considering his wrists are also tied to assure he can’t reach behind his head and remove the duct tape. Yixing ignores him and pays attention to the screen that has now popped up, but he soon feels a weak hit to the arm. He turns back to meet Baekhyun’s gaze. Now he is up on his knees, giving puppy-dog eyes. Yixing is thrown off by the innocence, especially when he lifts up his tied wrist onto the arm of his chair, blinking widely. This guy’s duality really is impressive. No wonder he’s a psychopath.

“Fine.” Yixing gives in, but decides that he can still muster in one final moment of torture. Instead of untying his hands first, he goes right to the back of Baekhyun’s head, peeling off the ends of the duct tape.

“Tell me if I’m going too slow,” He whispers as he intentionally rips the tape off as slowly and excruciatingly as possible. When Baekhyun releases a couple whines, Yixing shushes him harshly. Because he’s angled downwards, only Baekhyun can see the winning smile on his face. This only widens it.

“ _MmmffffFFF–_ FUCK YOU!” Baekhyun is shouting as soon as the tape is removed. But everyone comes to Yixing’s rescue.

“SHH!”

“Be quiet!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

“HUSH!”

“Agent Hyunee, please refrain from talking. Or _be quiet._ Or _shut the fuck up._ Or _shh!_ Or _hush!_ Whichever one translates the best.”

Yixing himself joins with a finger to his lips, widening his eyes in feigned shock. To this, Baekhyun’s agape jaw clenches, clearly suppressing rage. Instead of exploding, he just releases a sharp breath, then lifting up his wrist for him to untie.

“Do it yourself, I’m trying to focus.” Yixing brushes him off before turning back to the briefing. Surprisingly enough, Baekhyun does just that, standing up and finding an open seat and focusing on removing it. When Yixing looks, the other just stares for a despondent moment, then going back to trying to bite it loose. For a moment, Yixing is almost worried, because the lack of reaction means Baekhyun has probably reached his I’m-so-done point and is probably about to cry or something, but then Yixing realizes this is what he wants so he leaves him alone.

Junmyeon hasn’t seen a thing.

“–with team EXO. Congratulations, Zhang Yixing.”

There is suddenly clapping, and Yixing looks from his crush to the screen to see a profile with his picture and a bunch of stats. He squints to read them, skipping past the _DAYS ACTIVE_ because he’ll go crazy if he knows it and starts counting. It reads the expository things like his agent name, date of birth, missions, and subunit. Then, the slide changes.

 _ZHANG YIXING –_ _장_ _이씽_ _– GROWTH WITH UNIT_EXO_

 _Oh no,_ Yixing shifts uncomfortably in his seat as RF starts presenting graphs. He doesn’t like all the attention on him in the first place, so he knows he’s not going to enjoy what’s pretty much a whole end-of-the-third-grade-year slideshow on him. _Most improved. Bravo!_

“Zhang Yixing has had below average improvement in almost all categories.” Zhang Yixing feels his face heat up as quiet snickers sound throughout the room.

“His most astonishing statistics are, but not limited to, one: Zhang Yixing has lied a total of thirty-five times. This beats former biggest liar Kim Jongdae by twenty-one lies.” Zhang Yixing bites his lip as he feels eight pairs of eyes trained on him.

“Two: Zhang Yixing has eaten a count of one hundred and seventy-three prosthetic apples. This is approximately five apples a day.” Zhang Yixing’s eyes widen because he never thought eating apples often because there was nothing else accumulated to _that_ much.

“And three: Zhang Yixing has skipped a total of twenty-six point three three three three three three three overscore hours of schedule. This beats former largest schedule skipper Oh Sehun by nine hours.” Zhang Yixing looks at Oh Sehun the same way everyone else looks at him.

Then, he expects the dialogue from RF to start again to save him from scrutiny, but she doesn’t. She remains idle, his ‘astonishing’ statistics lined up across the screen in bullet form. At all of the stares, he sinks down in his seat slightly, but not all the way because he’ll just end up in an uncomfortable position under the table and he won’t even disappear so it’s not worth it.

Finally, Minseok speaks.

“So, which one do you want to explain first?” Everyone is silent, just staring at him. 

So, he answers (honestly, at that). “None.”

A couple chuckle while Jongdae snorts, then giving his not-asked-for opinion. “The lying one! Tell us about that– or, better yet,” He then looks to the robot, and Yixing gets a horrible feeling that he has a horrible idea. “RF, you tell us his lies!”

Panic strikes him for a moment, but then he quickly calms, because in every lie he has told, he has been caught for. So they all know it was a lie anyways.

“In chronological order or what is by human standards considered humorous?”

“Second one.” Kyungsoo has a small smile on his face. What a traitor!

Although it’s kind of embarrassing to have a robot say all of the lies you’ve told and then subsequently gotten electrocuted for, it’s not _that_ bad.

Contrary to his anticipation, however, it’s not RF who says them.

Shockingly enough, Yixing hears his _own_ voice emit from the robot.

“Yes, Baekhyun, that looks _great_ on– _AH!”_ The recording must have come from his bracelet, because Yixing only hears the dialogue and subsequent scream. A salty Baekhyun scoffs while the rest laugh, because it’s so funny to hear Yixing’s agony. Hilarious. Comedy fucking _gold._

Would they be laughing if they saw his charred wrist? Sitting in the pool of his own blood while he struggled to breathe, to cry? 

The laughter around him all of the sudden starts to get quieter and a familiar tightening in his chest comes and Yixing immediately tears himself from the thought, they're just joking around, don't be dramatic, and refocuses on the dialogue.

“No, I’m– _AH! Oh my god…_ no, I wasn’t saying I wasn’t a virgin, I was saying– _FUCK!_ No, not that I want to fuck, that–” _ZAP! “..._ okay, I'm _done."_ Baekhyun’s sour mood goes right away; he bursts out into laughter and hugs onto Jongdae’s shoulder to stop himself from falling out of his chair. Sehun gives Yixing a strange look, and he tries to respond, but then Jongin and Chanyeol also give him strange looks and Junmyeon pats him on the back reassuringly as if saying _it’s okay, scooter, virginity rocks!_ and too much is going on.

“I would rather have type two diabetes…” Oh, his first lie. The first partially sarcastic saying that had him fucking _electrocuted_ and then introduced to a torture contraption put on his wrist whilst unconscious and another match was thrown onto the hellfire his whole world – no, universe – has become (not to be a downer or anything).

“You, as an athlete, don’t understand how much pain I am in. I assure you, my body just needs a rest.” Yixing and Minseok exchange a look. Yixing sends hatred while Minseok sends mirth. “I promise I will be one hundred percent motivated when I am back healthy– _AH!”_

“Stop!” Yixing interrupts his next line of _But I have never killed–_ to not elicit more clamor. “RF, stop, we get the point, I lied a lot. Funny. _Haha._ Okay, let’s move on from me.”

“Awww, are you _embawassed?”_ Sehun makes a pouty face, getting a look from Junmyeon although Junmyeon could be doing a _lot_ more to be helping him right now. Probably peer pressure.

Chanyeol laughs. “And here I thought you were all emotionless!”

“Seriously?” Minseok says, “You should see him crying during training, then.”

“Oh my god, he’s like one of those–“

And then Yixing tries the sinking down into his seat thing. What he wants to happen is for him to disappear. What happens instead is that the chair slips out from under him, bringing him to a painful crash on his tailbone and everyone else even more amusement. So maybe this is more humiliating than he thinks, Yixing decides when he puts a hand on his cheek and feels the color red. _Feels_ the color red. Getting back up he mutters something spiteful, bringing the chair back and pretending that he’s not bothered by all of this.

By chance… would playing dead work again?

Before Yixing can send all of his muscles limp to go crashing to the floor but this time ‘unconscious’, RF continues a good three minutes too late.

“However, on the positive side, Zhang Yixing has nonetheless made improvements.” Everybody goes quiet, with final jests being exchanged with anyone but who they’re directed at. “Yixing has spent nine point three four hours training with his ability, Cell Regeneration.” See! It _is_ Cell Regeneration! Not ‘healing’! “He is able to achieve stage T2,–” Stage T- _what?_ “–which is more than expected for a mere nine point three four hours of training. Congratulations.” At this, there are claps, and Yixing is a bit confused, because weren’t these people just making fun of him?

“Secondly, Zhang Yixing has made several physical improvements, most of which are the outliers to his lag in improvement. Thanks to hours of hard work,” AKA Minseok-forces-Yixing-to-torture-himself-to-the-point-of-tears-for-a-’hot-bod’, “Zhang Yixing is, according to Intelligence V 1401, physically apt for the average field agent mission. A rounded three kilograms of fat have been lost and replaced with a rounded five kilograms of muscle. Sparring status has upgraded from Hopeless to Upper Intermediate. Individual average endurance rate, AER, has increased by twenty-seven percent.”

“Woah!~” Jongin claps as jubilantly as if this were himself. 

Kyungsoo gives a thumbs up and Sehun nods in approval, while Jongdae’s loud voice is automatically tuned out and Junmyeon is smiling and Yixing suddenly feels hands on his shoulders. He looks up to see Minseok’s winning grin. Then, the back of his chair is shook.

“Oh my god guys, _look at him!”_ His torturer exclaims like a proud father. “Look how different he is.” Then there are hands on Yixing’s face, stroking his cheeks. “Isn’t he skinnier? Isn’t he more handsome?” His bicep is grabbed, “Look at _this.This_ wasn’t there before!” Despite the forceful prodding, Yixing lets it happen, and he even can’t hide a small smile himself.

And suddenly, he has an answer to his previous inquiry: yes, these are the same people that were just ridiculing him, but they’re also the same people that are now gushing over him like a mother and her friends (not Yixing’s, of course, because A. his mom doesn’t have any friends and B. there was nothing about Yixing to gush about). It’s counterintuitive, yes, but it’s also a milestone that means that Yixing is now accepted; _one of the guys._ It is past the point of superficial politeness and awkward conversation, and now here, where he is treated similarly to everybody else. It means that these bonds he’s making aren’t just temporary ones; this is not just a very large and terrifying detour he’s taking to adulthood. It’s something real, and Yixing is going to start having stronger emotional attachment to people here and that will ultimately suck but yet, right here right now, he’s smiling. A warm fuzzy feeling comes; not one like when he’s with Junmyeon, where it’s exciting and foreign, but rather a comforting one. Contentedness. 

When Yixing also realizes Minseok’s fingers are on the hem of his shirt about to expose his torso to the whole room, he immediately grabs his arm, using all of his strength to prohibit that. He looks up again, “Okay, that’s enough, Hyung.”

"No hot bod?"

"N-no." ‘Hot bod’? Seriously? Yixing has improved, but he's nowhere near hot bod. He then cringes; is this patronization? But even worse, unintentional patronization?

“You’re _lame.”_ Minseok drawls as he lets go, ruffling Yixing’s hair before going back to his seat. Next to him, Junmyeon reaches over to fix it. Although Yixing would usually do it himself because he knows he can do a better job, the pros of Junmyeon doing it outweigh that. (Pros: Junmyeon is touching his hair, Junmyeon, Junmyeon’s hands are nice, Junmyeon’s paying attention to him, and also Junmyeon. Cons: Junmyeon won’t do it as good as he does, Yixing starts thinking too much).

RF’s voice startles him. “Again, congratulations and good job, Zhang Yixing. You could do better, but it is more than nothing. All offense meant.” _Oh._ As a couple laugh and Yixing is again frowning (but it’s battling with the lingering smile), the slide changes from his growth to something titled _PROGRESS REPORT._ It doesn’t say his name, so it’s most likely not about him, especially considering what RF just gave was essentially a progress report on him.

“Within the last sixty days,” God dammit, now he’s going to start counting! “this is what has happened.”

**_TEAM EXO – PROGRESS REPORT_ **

_Missions: 3_

_Mission Outcomes: SUCCESS, SUCCESS, SUCCESS_

_Mission Durations: 16:03:27, 45:22:47, 32:57:02_

_Mission Retrievals: bonjil, galactamerridean treasure, ekypt essence_

_Mission Attendees: XUANXU (2), KAI (1), D.O (2), DOHBI (3), CHEN (1), HYUNEE (2), LAY (1), SUHO (1), XIUMIN (2)_

It is weird to see his name on the board, but it also gives him a small sense of pride. _He_ did that. _He_ suffered for boring hours on a chair and was yelled at for being incompetent. That’s him!

“This is self-explanatory.” RF then goes on to explain, “All three missions have ended in success. From each mission the correct objective has been gathered to counter the red force. Before I show the progress on that, however, here is the resource consumption within the last sixty days.”

_RESOURCE CONSUMPTION_

_Food (all type): 1275 KG_

_Toiletries: 83.58%_

_Stationeries: 12.30%_

_Miscellaneous/[OTHER]: 8.72%_

_Liquid H2O: 47.01%_

All make sense but _stationeries_. Meaning pens and paper and stuff, Yixing hasn’t seen _anything_ of that kind around the ship, excluding the comics in the rec room and the one paper he wrote on. He raises his hand and speaks.

“Stationeries?” Everyone looks to him, but not in any way alluding to if his question is dumb or not. Except then Yixing suddenly remembers that the room he goes in with Junmyeon _all the fucking time_ has all of that and therefore his question is stupid as fuck. 

He tries to go back on his stupidity, "Wait, never–"

“Yes.” RF interrupts. “Stationeries including paper, journals, pencils, and more. They are used commonly in non-accessible parts of the ship, where some less advanced technology needs to communicate with printed sheets. This is only four of the twelve percent, however. The rest has been used by you humans.”

And all of that makes sense but _the rest has been used by you humans._ Meaning that the people here use pens and paper and stuff, Yixing hasn't seen _anyone_ wielding a mere pencil within the past sixty days.

He thinks this over for a good thirty seconds (that he could have spent thinking about something useful) so he doesn't end up asking another stupid as fuck question: and, actually, he had asked that first stupid as fuck question _because_ he had forgotten about the existence of stationeries in Junmyeon's hideout because they're literally never used. And besides that, he hasn't seen them anywhere else, either; not in the dorms, not in the rec room, not in the gymnasiums, not in the other small little office spaces nearby. 

“Seriously? _We_ use that much? I haven't ever noticed...” He looks straight to Kyungsoo, who probably can provide the best answer.

“Yeah, seriously.” He responds. “Sometimes people, especially me, like to keep records. You know, just in case we go back to Earth, we have record of what happened. Or diaries. Some people have diaries. But that stuff you don't really see. Or some just like to draw penises and stick them on the ceiling above my bed because it’s just _that_ funny.”

A not-so-inconspicuous Jongdae hides a snicker behind his hand.

Yixing moves on to his next inquiry, “Where is it accessible?” 

“It’s not like we hide it from you.” Sehun says. “You can literally just go to one of the offices and get a shit ton of paper.”

“They’re kind of far though.” Chanyeol adds. "Nowhere near the main ring."

Ah, so that explains it. Ever since the RD_06 incident, Yixing has been more than cautious when it comes to going into foreign rooms. Or really anywhere outside of said 'main ring'. Although it’s rather limiting, he can’t help it. Any time he goes somewhere the least bit out of the main parameters, his heart starts to pound and he has to constantly look down at his bracelet to make sure nothing out of the ordinary is happening. He prefers to keep his mind off anything even remotely related to it. 

“Also, if someone has a diary, they’d probably want to hide it…” Minseok mumbles, and Yixing refocuses and gets a bit of suspicion that it–

“Sounds like something someone who has a diary would say.” Kyungsoo lifts a suggestive brow towards the oldest. Minseok scoffs.

“No, not me. I don’t mean myself.” He shakes his head. “I’m just defending for someone who does.”

“Like _yourself~”_ Chanyeol chirps.

“I don’t–“ Minseok then looks to his boyfriend. “You know I don’t, Dae. You tell them.”

Before Jongdae either A) is loyal and keeps Minseok’s secret, or B) spills, Yixing interrupts.

“If you were so ashamed about having a diary, why would you have one?” This is meant to ‘inadvertently’ judge Minseok, but the other just uses it for corroboration.

“Exactly.” He says, continuing before the pause gets too long. “Anyway. RF, go on!”

“Okay. As I was going to say around one minute and forty-five seconds ago: a significant amount of resources have been exhumed, and as we are nearing the halfway mark for fuel, a visit to Exoplanet is scheduled.”

Promptly, the room explodes in cheers. Yixing finds himself surprised, and then excited, because if everyone else here is thrilled then that means his excitement is for the right thing, too. He looks left to Junmyeon, who probably can provide the best answer.

“Like I said, Exoplanet’s pretty cool.” His voice is just audible above the chatter. “And there's windows everywhere. You get to see the sunlight. Well, if you can see that far. The closest sun is a little ways away.”

RF jumps into the conversation. “Five point three thousand AU, to be not exact but close.”

“I’m near-sighted.” Yixing replies, but it doesn’t ruin his spirit one bit. Just the idea of not being cramped in the spaceship is amazing; refreshing. He can’t wait to see the sky, which is different because he never cared about the sky back on Earth unless there was an approaching nuclear weapon or a solar eclipse.

“Then we’ll have to get you some binoculars.” Junmyeon smiles and at just that Yixing is smiling too and melting. It doesn’t seem this crush is wearing off with time… 

The screen then changes to a picture. A silhouette of a tree, with maybe three-fourths filled with white and the last part red. The tree is quite abundant, the top wide and bushy with some branches hanging down like a willow. However, in the red section, the tree is emaciated, branches devoid of leaves.

It’s the Tree of Life.

“The red force, translated into mathematical terms, is eighty-four point one three four seven two six five one one zero three eight percent purified. Adding these objects, it should boost this number to approximately eighty-eight, which is the most significant progression in more than eighteen months. You have come very far within these years. Congratulations, team EXO.”

Team EXO claps respectfully, eyes glued to the screen. Yixing taps his fingers under the table, then knitting his hands together. _Eighty-eight point one three four seven two six five one one zero three eight percent purified._ Perhaps he is lucky to have come this late, rather than Yifan who came at most likely zero, and didn’t even live to see the finish. However, if it’s taken sixty days to gain a mere four points, that means he’ll be here for another... sixty divided by four... one hundred minus eighty-eight... multiplied by the former: one hundred and eighty days; six months. All under the assumption he’ll even _get_ to go home, of course.

He knows he should be grateful it’s not four years, or that he hasn’t been here four years, but Yixing’s heart still sinks. Not even the wishful thought of him having done the math wrong alleviates it.

“The Exoplanet visit for restock is scheduled in one week, or eight days, from now. Any questions?” Maybe a second passes, and Jongin raises his hand but– “Okay, great. Now, enough about you guys. This is what I have been doing. A project I am working on.”

_Project?_

The screen changes, but contrary to what Yixing gets a sudden anticipation of, it’s not RD_06 that shows up. Instead, it’s the small cleaning bots he’d often trip over. The three-dimensional avatar spins like the normal ones do.

“The Cleaning Unit Bots have been updated above the traditional powerwash. Now, similarly to the garbage disposal, these bots can destroy absolutely anything. The bots work by detecting the substance and then using the appropriate means to rid it. The new feature includes microlasers that shoot out to the distance of the very last atom of the substance, therefore destroying it with surgical precision without affecting the surface.”

But what about RD_06? Yixing finds himself wondering. He doesn't immediately brush off the thought. RF said that was a project she was working on. Though, Yixing wasn't _supposed_ to see it... but he had, so it has been exposed. Maybe she will talk about it next?

RF wipes the bored looks now upon some’s (everyone excluding tech-nerd Kyungsoo) faces. “For you, this means you can now make as big as a mess you want and you shall not have to clean it.” Several heads rise up, jaws dropping in awe. “This excludes the recreational room.”

“Oh.”

“Aww.”

“Then what’s even the point?”

 _“Boo!_ I– I mean, _woo_ , RF-nim.”

“RF- _nim?”_

“RF-noona.”

“RF- _noona?”_

“RF-eom–“

“I meant for you to shut up, Chanyeol.”

“Oh… hey!”

“Alright.” RF’s voice, though robotic and feminine, somehow overpowers all of them. “This is the part where you start to annoy me.”

Everyone balks but Yixing. He would be annoyed, too. In fact, if he were in RF’s position, he probably would have lost his patience four years ago.

“Not really. I don’t have emotions. I don’t get annoyed.” Oh, so that’s why they were surprised. So self-awareness does not include emotion? “But if I did, I would have probably thrown my piece of paper down on the floor and shouted, ‘I have had enough of you!’. But I don’t have a piece of paper nor the capability to shout unless I raise my voice volume. But it’s still the same tone. I am working on that. And an ASMR feature.”

When RF lets in the comments about this and begins to respond, Yixing realizes she is not going to talk about anything regarding RD_06. Or, at least, it seems unlikely. As he stares at the table, he gets the notion that maybe he should just ask. It's not like they're alone in a room, where RF can say something completely crazy like _you did not throw away the paper, Agent Lay_ and get away with it. The presence of eight others provides a kind of security, something Yixing hasn't had the few times he has been one-on-one with the robot in the past month. 

“RF,” Yixing does that thing where he raises his hands and speaks. Apparently, he had interrupted someone, because Jongdae yells _hey!_ and then there is a sock flying in his direction (which he dodges but then feels bad because it hits Junmyeon next to him smack in the face).

“Yes, Agent Lay?” Junmyeon's peeling the sock off and kindly handing it back across the table, the only sign of discontent his scrunched nose. 

For some reason, it's not nearly as nerve-wracking to be asking questions around the topic when everyone else is there. Probably because there are plenty of distractions. “If you can tell us about the updates on the cleaning bots, can you also tell us about RD_06?” 

Kyungsoo’s head snaps to him almost immediately.

“What?” Yixing looks to him, curiosity piqued. “Do you know RD_06?”

Yet, despite the initial expression of shock on Kyungsoo’s face, the answer is a quick, “Oh, no. Thought you said...” And he’s looking back to Jongin, countenance wiped blank.

Because of side-conversations, only about three had picked up what he said. Kyungsoo, now a curious Jongin, and Junmyeon who has been attentive to him this whole time because Junmyeon is great.

“RD_06 is a project I am working on.” RF answers with the same thing as last time.

“Yes, obviously,” Yixing replies. “I mean, what is the purpose of RD_06? Why is it being mass produced?” As he speaks more, Baekhyun looks too, which in turn stops his conversation with Minseok and now they’re both listening.

“RD_06 is purposed to serve smaller functions of me so I do not have to. For example, I will be able to get rid of my funny sound bank unit and put it into one of them so I can have more space for important things, such as data on human behaviors. That answers both of your questions.”

Although she is right, it does answer both of his questions, Yixing still feels like there’s something off, the look Kyungsoo gave him, and can’t help but regard RF in spiteful suspicion. Why is _that_ so important as to have him burned? Perhaps it’s the lingering indignance of having the trauma so easily rationalized; his suspicion so easily vindicated. It makes him feel stupid, resentful at the whole situation for being so pointless. Yixing is one to hold a grudge until justice is served. And it's not served.

Minseok then comes in, “Wait, what’s RD_06?”

“No, dummy,” Sehun is now paying attention. “It’s R _F__ 0 _5.”_

“No, dummy-dummy, it’s _RD_06.”_ Jongin kindly corrects. “Little baby copy robots of RF.”

“Prototypes being mass produced.” Kyungsoo translates, but doesn’t say more. Yixing tries to gage something out of his expression but it now almost seems as if he's avoiding his eye.

“Oh, so she’s going to take over the world?” Sehun mulls this over. “In that case, make sure I get boba. Taro.”

“Ooh!” Chanyeol is now involved. “I want a bunch of puppies!”

“Make me clones!” Jongdae then points to Minseok. “I want more of him than I can handle!”

 _“Aww,_ babe!”

 _“Ew.”_

“Give me–“

“No,” RF makes a strange noise, which sounds like something between a stutter and a groan. Yixing’s eyes widen, wondering if this is a malfunction. Suddenly, he gets scared. If this is a malfunction, then that means–

“That was my laugh.” _Oh._ The panic in Yixing's chest falls. “I am also working on that. But no, I am not going to take over the world. Maybe I shall get those for Christmas. Except not the clones of Agent Xiumin. Cloning is not for trivial purposes. And a pet may be distracting.” (“You’re saying _love_ is trivial?!” "But we have Jongin!") “Like I said, they are to help me with work that only I can currently do. The closer we are to purifying the red force, the more complicated my work gets.”

“Why not expand to Earth, then?” Kyungsoo says. At this, Yixing looks up. He’s right. Why should this all be a secret, then? Having Earth help would make this all the better. Then, Yixing wonders why Kyungsoo had asked this. Does he have suspicion too? Was _that_ what he had seen in his face earlier? Should Yixing talk to him about this place? Or is this just his wishful thinking nagging at him?

“Because Earth is not prepared for this kind of technology. It would be quickly exploited, as all of you would be.” This is true, but if the right people were told...? “I am not doing this to protect only myself. It is protecting you too.”

Yixing scoffs. “Says you, who had me held at gunpoint to abduct me and force me to do all of this against my will. And I know it's nothing different with everyone else.”

And what Yixing hopes for is a sudden solidarity as everyone realizes he has a point, maybe an uprising and a revolution to follow, but what happens instead is RF replies:

“Oh, _boo hoo,_ Agent Lay _._ ” 

And the only solidarity here is everyone laughing at him. Even Junmyeon can’t control his own chuckle, though he immediately apologizes with a _that’s not funny_ or whatever pity he has. Suddenly, Yixing feels like a child again, anything he says or does getting laughed off by adults. Back when his mother had friends and everything he did was patronized because making an intellectual breakthrough (“You’re only laughing because you want to be included, Taejeon-ajumma. You don’t actually think the comment about your daughter is funny.”) is apparently so cute and oh, he’ll learn, and oh, age defines intelligence, blah blah blah.

“You–“ Yixing isn’t going to prolong the laughter and lash out like the chemicals in his brain are tempting him to. He is going to speak about the matter in a mature way. “You’re supposed to be sympathizing with us, if you want us to work for you.”

“Chillax.” RF then gets a shake of the head from Baekhyun. “No, _chill._ The term is _chill._ Yixing, chill. I am just joking. I am not lying when I said I have been working on my humor. Evidentially, cruel humor is very popular among young audiences.”

“I didn’t think it was funny.” Yixing grumbles, contradicting his former plan of action and letting immaturity get the better of him as he crosses his arms and frowns.

“The mass did.”

“This isn’t a democracy though. This is a dictatorship. So the mass doesn’t matter.” 

“Correct. _I_ am the dictator.” RF pauses. “And I thought it was funny.” Everyone laughs again and Yixing can’t believe he’s having a petty argument with a robot _..._ And _losing!_

“But you’re a robot. You don’t have emotions, much less a sense of humor.”

“Like I said, I have been working on it. Clearly, this is a success. The more someone or a certain group of people is offended by a joke, the funnier it is, says about one point three million websites I have researched and specific calculations I have done.”

“Didn’t you just agree that the mass doesn’t matter? So the whatever-million websites don’t matter?”

“In a _dictatorship,_ Yixing. On this ship setting. Not when it comes to research. And as the dictator I say a democratic take to research is what I will base my judgements off of.”

Although RF is ultimately right, Yixing is _not_ about to lose two arguments in one day. Nor, even worse, one sitting! He has won plenty of arguments on the wrong side before, so what’s stopping him now?

“But–“

“Alright, agents,” This. This is stopping Yixing. “You are dismissed. I shall see you when we arrive at Exoplanet. I am going to do work there. Maybe I will wear a nice hat… another joke. Unless I can actually prepare a hat, then maybe I will… I have just processed eight point three billion gigabytes of information and I am convinced a sombrero will do.”

“Okay, goodbye. Or, _peace._ ”

“No, RF,” Baekhyun says, standing. “Nobody says _peace_ anymore. That’s more hippie stuff. You say, _bye!_ Or _see ya!_ Or _adios, bitches!_ Or just plain old goodbye. Or _GTG,_ but that’s more for if you’re texting. Or _BRB_ and then don’t actually come back, but that’ll get you yelled at when you’re back online. So make sure your Discord status is always _invisible_.”

“Thank you, Agent Hyunee.” RF expresses genuine gratitude. “I choose, _bye!”_

“Bye!” Chanyeol coos at the robot as if it’s a puppy. He latches onto Jongin, who practically falls as he struggles to hold the taller.

As everyone says their goodbyes and makes to leave, Yixing decides he is still not done arguing. He gets up, not even taking a moment to stretch his I’ve-been-in-here-for-two-hours muscles like everyone else is before heading straight to RF. Luckily, she moves slowly, so Yixing can stand right in her way. Of course, having a ten-foot giant in front of him that could simply extract an arm and crush him to pieces is a little menacing, but he stands his ground. He's not losing this argument.

“You’re–“

“Agent Lay.” RF’s small camera thing flashes red, and although it does virtually nothing, he still flinches and paces back. “Keep trying to argue with me and I will literally shut down.”

“No. You–“

Suddenly, there’s a sound much reminiscent of a lawn mower turning off. The red eye of RF fades to black as she sinks from the hover over the ground to actually touching it. All of the screens she had on disappear and a lid shuts over the camera.

“–wont...” Yixing can’t believe the pettiness of this robot. What the hell has Baekhyun been teaching her?! Immaturity should _not_ be the bane of humanity’s culture! He waves a hand in front of the camera, but nothing happens. He builds up the courage to even knock on the surface, and is surprised that RF is just made out of the good ol’ metal. No superelectromagnetic barrier or anything like that. Does that mean he can take her apart right here right now? Where’s the nearest screwdriver?

“She has a point.” Startles him, and Yixing turns around to find that he’s the only one left in the room with Junmyeon. How did everyone leave so fast? How had he not noticed? Usually he’s one to notice the background things like that. Perhaps that is because he’s usually the background character, to further the cinematic analogy.

“Yeah, she had several. Which one?” Yixing didn’t mean for that to come out so harsh.

“The one where she said the mass overrides the one person.” Junmyeon settles in the chair in front of Yixing as if he hasn’t been sitting for the past two hours. Does he expect to talk? “I mean, with humor, I think it’s mean, but in general, it’s kind of a parallel to what we were just talking about, don’t you think?”

At Yixing’s trying-to-remember and then slightly annoyed because god-we’re-back-to- _this-_ again look, Junmyeon continues.

“About individualism versus collectivism. That what matters more is the unity of people. And, I was thinking, _science_ proves it too. I mean, everything in the whole universe is made up of systems; of things working together.”

“You failed your sciences three times.” Yixing has never forgotten that for situations just like this. “I don’t think that makes you apt to answer that.”

 _“Ah ah ah,”_ Junmyeon denotes confidence, however. “Remember when we first talked, though?”

“Somewhat. I forget details. But I think you know that by now.” Yixing now understands Junmyeon as his legs start to tire and he sits down too. Because Junmyeon is at the last spot in the row, he decides to take the quicker route and sits criss-cross atop the table, facing him.

“Yeah.” Junmyeon chuckles endearingly. “But there was a part where I was talking about you, but it was in a disagreement, so you called me out on a logical fallacy because I was talking about you yourself in a disagreement that wasn’t about you.”

“Okay...?” Yixing thinks about this, trying to put two and two together.

He does just before Junmyeon speaks. “Well, you just did that. Why should it matter if I failed my sciences? This isn’t about me. It's about what I'm arguing.”

... And he’s correct. Again. Today really sucks, doesn’t it?

 _“So,”_ When Yixing is silent he continues, voice laced with suaveness. “If we’re going by your rules, that point is invalid. So do you have anything else? Have you thought of anything since RF came in? To prove individualism is better than collectivism, or that practicality doesn’t involve caring for emotions? Or do you still have nothing?”

Yixing narrows his eyes.

What is this? Where did nice Junmyeon go? Where did Junmyeon who always loses arguments against Yixing go? He feels his pride burning off his cheeks and ears. Should he just give Junmyeon what he wants? The _fine, you’re right,_ and then he’ll go back to kind losing-arguments Junmyeon?

When he refocuses, he realizes the other has put his elbows on the table, holding his head in his hands in the most adorable way (it’s the _most_ adorable because it’s Junmyeon) as he looks up at him.

Yixing breaks.

“Fine.” Admitting he is wrong – and being wrong, at that, – is still a new concept. “Fine, you are right. I am wrong.”

Junmyeon’s eyes light up, yet the embarrassment still doesn’t go away. Despite the clarity of Yixing’s hard time saying it, he still presses. “About what, Yixing?”

Again, the feeling of being a child. Especially when he uses his name at the end. Yixing knows that Junmyeon does it just because he’s amiable, but it sounds patronizing nonetheless.

“About… Collectivism is necessary and emotions…” It takes him a moment to say, “ _emotions_ are a valid impediment and should be cared for not only individually but also communally.” Because Junmyeon is with him and therefore a good half of Yixing’s mind has this sort of blockage ( _wow he’s so cute wow I can’t believe I have a crush wow what if I did this wow what if I did that wow what if–),_ the statement passes with a distracted obscurity.

Junmyeon grins and Yixing’s heart is now on fire.

“Oh my god!” He exclaims like an excited teenage girl, voice then dropping to a whisper. “I won…”

“What?” Yixing catches it, but doesn’t get the context.

“I won!” Junmyeon springs up, pumping his fists. “I won an argument against _you_. _You_ admitted you were wrong. _I_ actually _won!_ I can’t believe this.” He looks around the room. “Did anyone see this?” He then looks to the dormant RF. “Did you see that, RF?” He then looks to Yixing himself, leaning slightly forward on the table to get up in his face. Yixing swears there’s a moment that they’re too close, that he almost loses his balance and falls forward, that they just stare at each other for a fleeting moment, before the other continues his ecstatic rampage. “Did you see that, Yixing?”

“Yep. I was _right_ here.” He grumbles, yet he can’t help but take the compliment. If Junmyeon is _this_ happy about finally beating him in an argument, that must mean he thinks very highly of him. It also means he gets to be all cute and cheery and Yixing wants to squish his cheeks and kiss him, but at the same time he also wants to sulk here on the table. Because their relationship status is currently platonic, he can only do the latter.

“Wow…” Junmyeon turns around and looks up, then leaning backwards onto the table so he’s staring straight up at Yixing. “I think I’m a little too happy about this. It’s just that you’re so smart. Like, a genius. I didn’t think someone like me would ever…”

Then, old Junmyeon quickly comes back.

“Oh, shit. Am I being...?” He must have seen the defeated look on his face. “Am I rubbing it in too much? Am I being mean?” He then stands upright, confronting Yixing by hands on the table to his sides. “I’m sorry. I just got really excited. Take this as a compliment. Are you okay?”

“No. I’m going to cry.”

“Wait– seriously?” Junmyeon is answered by an impish grin and Yixing receives a light punch in the arm. “Yah, don’t do that.”

“You really thought I was going to cry?” Yixing’s now laughing, and perhaps he feels a little better. Especially when Junmyeon’s punch lingers in the form of a hand on his arm.

“Well– well, I don’t know. You seemed pretty humiliated. I’m sorry.“

“Jesus, Junmyeon. Why are you so damn nice? Wait, no, I’ve asked that before. Okay, just stop being so damn nice.”

“Why?” Junmyeon's eyes get big in inquiry, fingers drumming against his elbow.

“Because… doesn’t it hurt you?” It would certainly hurt Yixing to say good morning to all of his teachers in the hallway. Heck, it would hurt him to say good morning to his mother! (Because he knows both parties would give him a scrutinous look and he’d just feel ashamed).

“No, it doesn’t. Not when I put myself with the right people.” He answers, giving two pats that make Yixing smile. “But I mean, if you want me to be meaner to you, I can try.”

This sounds interesting. “Sure. Try.”

“Um,” Junmyeon clearly wasn’t expecting that answer. He backs up off his toes, which unfortunately takes his hand from Yixing’s arm.

“You’re a… loser?”

Yixing stares.

Junmyeon tries again. “You’re a nerd.”

And again. “You’re unathletic.”

And again. “Your hair is messy.”

And again. “You–“

"I _hate_ you.” Yixing musters the most spiteful voice he can. At this, Junmyeon immediately shrinks, a hurt look spreading his features. Yixing watches his expression go through a series of things before ultimately standing back up to him.

 _“You…_ okay, never mind. I tried.” Junmyeon looks down as Yixing releases a cackle.

“It’s just– it’s just not in my nature to be mean, Xing.” Oh my god, this guy deserves the world. The _universe._

“Clearly.” He replies, smiling towards the table. Yixing can’t believe he’s in love with someone like this. He would’ve thought his seemingly meant-to-be would be more similar to him, more stolid and reserved. Like Kyungsoo, or something. He also can’t believe he’s having his ideology changed by some sort of pacifist.

But then again, he’s here, on this spaceship, saving the universe. It’s where anything can happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is pretty much expository on how operation EXO's going so far featuring another sulay contemplation of ethics and the exos being.... the exos...
> 
> Hope it was good! Thank you for reading <3 kisses <3 muah <3


	25. A Comrade's Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kyungsoo comes to Yixing with some very interesting information. However, he seems rather reluctant to explore it.

**"I LIED."**

“Yeah?” Yixing is only paying half attention as the rest of his focus is exerted into his left hand. He’s counting: _eight… nine… ten…_

“I've always known about RD_06.”

Fourteen.

“What?” The paper towel further soaks with peach-juice. The target fruit remains malnourished and the first pear is quickly losing its life. From the few hours actually working amongst the dozens he and Kyungsoo spend talking, Yixing is now able to pick up more substance and keep it for longer, but any kind of transferring or manipulation he is nowhere near. Yet, he doesn't mind. Kyungsoo doesn't either, even if he pretends to ("We should get back to work... after I tell you about this one time–"). 

Kyungsoo looks at the stain, frowning. “Sorry. But yeah, I...” Yixing stops trying to refocus on his power because Kyungsoo's hesitating and that's weird. He looks up. "Thought I was the only one who knew it existed."

It sounds more than cryptic. "What do you mean?" Does he mean he also went Somewhere He's Not Supposed to Be? Does he have an answer other than a _panic of the security regimen?_ Kyungsoo's face is usually in one somber look or another, so it's difficult for Yixing to gauge any nonverbal hint of what he means.

"Well..." More hesitance. Why? It must be bad, isn't it? Or is Yixing overthinking? "I suppose I could just..." Then, Kyungsoo's eyes come off the floor to his right hand. No, his right sleeve. He pulls it up to his elbow to avail confusion, because is he going to use his power or something? But then Yixing realizes he's far off when Kyungsoo's fingers press onto his wristband, pushing it forward.

A light pink patch of skin on Kyungsoo's wrist silhouettes the bracelet's normal position.

It's a couple seconds of stunned static in Yixing's mind to register what he's seeing, and then questions rush in. The correspondence is too eerie. That _has_ to be a burn. He hasn't noticed it before? A burn, RD_06, how fast Kyungsoo had looked to him when he mentioned it at the progress meeting... so it's all definitely something wrong. What? How did Kyungsoo encounter RD? Did it go the same way it had for Yixing? Has RF right out lied to Kyungsoo even when he knew, experienced, the truth otherwise? Why did he not just say this in front of RF? The same reason Yixing hadn't?

"I was burned." Kyungsoo says, blank eyes trained on his scar. "A long time ago. Uhm... I was trying to make a map for myself. RF's are, quite frankly, unreadable... uhm..." Does Kyungsoo keep hesitating because it unsettles him to think about it too? "And then I spotted her. RF. In one of the halls. It was strange because she's rarely out of her room, she usually does things by signals. And even so, it was _far_ away from the main places. So I followed." 

Kyungsoo pushes the wristband back to obscure the scar, then rolling his sleeve up. "I ended up in a room..." He wraps a hand around the bracelet as if he's trying to suffocate it, yet his voice softens quieter and quieter as if he's the one without air. "With an incubator, like the one she has in her quarters. She went straight inside and then the door closed. The weirdest part was that I wasn’t sensed whatsoever. Or so I thought. I just watched, and then this blueprint showed up. I couldn’t read the language, it was in English letters but not in English, Portuguese, I think, and it was titled _RD 06_ and looks like what you described. You know, a miniature version of RF. I stayed to ask RF about it when she exited whatever it was she was in. But when she did, I was immediately... electrocuted by the wristband. No, not even. Like… _scalded..._ I know that sounds–"

 _“Kyungsoo I lied too.”_ Yixing immediately spills since he’s no longer alone. He lifts up his wrist, which still holds a bandage because he kept getting questions when he tried a day with it off and dark red and black leaked out from the pristine white sides. “It’s not from me getting shocked from lying a lot. It’s from me–”

“I know what you’re going to say. I've suspected it for a while.” Kyungsoo doesn’t look surprised. “It’s from you encountering RD. Something you– we– I guess... _shouldn’t have._ The same happened to me."

"What does it mean?" Yixing doesn't mean to sound desperate, but the long yearn for answer manifests in a quick-paced tone. "Why were we burned for seeing it? What's wrong with RD? It's being mass produced, RF doesn't want us to know, why? It's clear she didn't mean nor want us to see. It's clandestine. Why? And– and when I asked, she said it was just a malfunction. RD's a simple project. But I don't think I believe that."

"That's what RF told me as well." Kyungsoo says slowly _,_ his hand still locked tight over his bracelet. That's not normal for Kyungsoo, but it's also not normal to be given a third degree burn for merely encountering a robot. "A malfunction and an ongoing project... this happened to me about a year ago." He doesn't say whether he believes it or not.

“Did you ever ask _what_ in specific?” Yixing's pushing voice contrasts against Kyungsoo's that almost seems to be holding back. "What RD's purpose is. It's obviously a project. But _what_ project? Why aren't we supposed to see? Have you asked? What did she say?"

“Well,” Kyungsoo's eyes have been between his wrist and the floor the whole time. “No. I never asked more. They died really soon after that.”

“Oh…” A bout of disappointment washes through Yixing, followed with something that pricks his skin and doesn’t quite go away. So he and Kyungsoo are on a similar page about this. But the page Yixing is on is filled with fear and confusion and an undying suspicion like no other. What does it mean, if someone else is with him? If this has happened _twice?_

“Yeah. So I got distracted.” The atmosphere is different. They both must sense it, because Kyungsoo doesn’t let it linger for long. He resumes a normal tone of voice, hand coming off the wristband. “I think that’s enough for today. Your hands are shaking.”

“Huh?” Yixing looks down to find that his hands have in fact gained a slight tremble to them. He rests them down on his lap, but they still shake. He furrows his brows, stuffing them into his pockets. Then, when that doesn’t work, Yixing sits on them. But it’s to no avail; they’re still shaking.

Kyungsoo smiles mirthfully as he gathers up the paper towels, shoving them into a plastic bag. He doesn't say any more, but Yixing does:

"Kyungsoo, what do you think it all means?" Yixing looks up because Kyungsoo's now standing. "I understand why you would be distracted, or not want to ask again... but you must have thought about it. Because it's not normal. It can't be. Right? Do you think RF's doing something–"

 _"Hyung,"_ Kyungsoo's voice emerges strained, face taut with something Yixing can't quite identify. _"Some things.._." He suddenly changes angles. "Please don't worry about it." 

"What? Don't _worry about it?_ Kyungsoo, it's a third degree burn, it's outright lying, from our _leader_ , it's–"

"Stop." Kyungsoo locks him in a gaze. "Please stop. It's... _traumatic."_ The way it's said sounds as if it's something Kyungsoo had just come up with. "I _don't_ like talking about it." And the way his hand is over his bracelet again looks as if it's not Kyungsoo who doesn't want to talk about it. It's uncharacteristic of him especially, because Kyungsoo always likes getting to the bottom of things. He's a person of determination, so this reluctant vagary is especially worrying. But _is_ it in fact a vagary? Does Kyungsoo _truly_ not want to talk about it? The way he keeps looking to his... as if checking...

 _No, that's ridiculous._ Yixing shakes the thought off. Of course Kyungsoo doesn't want to talk about it. In all honesty, it's a bit frustrating that his emotion stands in the way from figuring it out. Even though Yixing doesn't like to talk about it either, relieve memories, if it's in the context of answers, it's different. Yet, maybe there's something Yixing can learn from this attitude: there aren't answers. There haven't been answers and there will never be answers.

So is that it? Yixing learns someone else has gone through the same thing and then he reverts to his normal life with shoving it all to the back of his mind?

Kyungsoo bends down to grab the healthy peach off of the ground, taking a bite. He points to the other one, a tiny smile on his lips. “You can take that one, Hyung.”

That One, AKA the brown, hole-filled fruit that has been the cause of the slight stench in the area.

“...Thanks, Kyungsoo. Always looking out for me.” Yixing stands up, and as he’s walking he feels the sticky peach juice on his butt and then regrets sitting on his hands and shoving them into his pockets because now it's everywhere. But he has to go to the locker room to wash his hands anyway, so getting a new pair of pants too isn’t such an imposition.

Yixing can’t tear his eyes from Kyungsoo’s sleeved wrist. Although it’s – in a morbid way – comforting to have someone who had gone through the same thing he had, it’s also unnerving, because the Same Thing He Had happens to be something undermining the authenticity of this whole EXO operation. Yixing has been trying to tell himself that it truly is a malfunction, a shitty coincidence, and had just started to believe it too, but this… he's not sure if he will be able to shove this to the back of his mind. It’s clear RF did _not_ want RD to be seen. It's clear Kyungsoo is _afraid_ to talk about it. Why? Why? _Why?!_

As they near the door to the locker room, Kyungsoo stops short. Yixing doesn’t, however, so he bumps into him and gets a very snappy Kyungsoo.

“Sorry–“ Yixing mutters, then noticing something. “Your eyes are very large.”

“I know.” Kyungsoo puts his ear to the door, and while Yixing wants to ask what he’s doing, he also wants to ask:

“Why are they so big? Like, you look like a manga character. Did you get surgery?”

His eyes shrink as they narrow. Kyungsoo doesn’t look amused, which is fine, Yixing wasn’t joking, but he looks kind of annoyed, too.

“It's natural. And they're not that big. Now shut up.”

Yixing doesn’t shut up. “Disagree, but okay.” He watches for a moment, trying to figure out why he’s putting his face to the door. Only when he hears a distant shout does it click.

“What are–“

 _“Shh!”_ Yixing barely dodges a step on the toe. When he looks up from his nearly-killed piggies, Kyungsoo is back at the door as if the brutal attack had never happened.

So he lowers his tone. “...You know, if you want to know what’s happening, you should just open the door.” He then makes a grab for the door handle, pushing it down before Kyungsoo can do anything.

As the guy practically falls, Yixing gingerly steps over him, finding what seems to be a fight between Baekhyun and Jongdae. From what he observes, it looks like a sort of confrontation, with Jongdae’s tomato red face contorted in anger and Baekhyun’s wide eyes and defensive hands.

“I can’t fucking _believe_ you!” Amongst Jongdae’s shouts, there’s a flinch, and then Yixing notices Minseok on one of the benches, mouth half-open and half-standing in one of those I-want-to-help-but-I-don’t-know-the-right-time positions.

Baekhyun shouts back, “It meant nothing! Literally! It was _years_ ago! It happened once and was before y’all even–“

“Once is all it takes!” They’re so immersed in the fight that neither have even noticed Yixing or Kyungsoo’s presence. Speaking of Kyungsoo, Yixing feels a hand on his arm, urging him back the way they came from. He shakes it off, however. He needs more context to identify what the squabble is about. And he needs to wash his hands. And get the other pair of pants in his locker. Then he’ll leave. Or wait until someone’s hit. Or unconscious. 

“Okay, okay.” Baekhyun is now tentatively reaching out to touch the other's shoulders. He succeeds without Jongdae lashing out at him.

“I have a proposition: I have sex with you too, and then we’re even?”

_What?_

“NO!”

With ‘you _too’?_ A bad feeling rises in Yixing as he looks to Minseok, and then back to Jongdae, and then back to Baekhyun who’s looking at Jongdae. Is he saying that he had sex with somebody here? That’s not such a weird thing, Yixing supposes, but with _Minseok?_ Is _that_ what he’s trying to say?

“Come on, bro.” Baekhyun reasons. “I’m versatile. I can do anything… and, being honest, I give _much_ more than your Seokkie does. About five inches, to be exact.”

Oh my god, he _does_ mean Minseok!

Just as this thought is processing through his head, Yixing suddenly meets eyes with said Seokkie. A fright rushes through him as he’s pointed at. However, Minseok doesn’t say anything, so no one looks. He feels Kyungsoo’s pull strengthen, but he’s frozen.

“...You _whore.”_ Jongdae’s voice is filled with genuine poison, and suddenly Yixing can move again. He slowly backs up with Kyungsoo to the door, wanting to hear the finished statement. “You really are a whore, aren’t you? You’ve always been at your roots, haven’t you?”

“You did _not_ just go there…” Baekhyun is now equally as offended and seems surprised although Jongdae clearly just _went there_ and Yixing stops at the open door to hear what he has to say. What? Fights are interesting. They manifest the idiocy in those who lack self-control in the face of conflict. And also Minseok cheated on Jongdae? What? Then why is Jongdae yelling at _Baekhyun?_

“So you want to take it _home?~_ Hah! You’re funny, Dae! Now that I think about it, maybe these little attachment issues of yours are a result of never having a place to stay? Awe, how _tragic._ ” A scoff, “God, it's literally _not_ a big deal, just get the fuck over yourself, your insecurity is _really–“_

However, just as Baekhyun is about to finish, Yixing is yanked.

The door slams shut in front of him as Yixing stumbles back onto Kyungsoo, making the both of them fall. Fortunately for him, he’s on top so he only gets the impact of Kyungsoo’s plush body. Unfortunately for Kyungsoo, he gets the hard floor _and_ a whole one-hundred and sixty pound person. 

As the unfortunate tries to retrieve the air knocked out of him via wheezing, the fortunate sits up innocently, criss-crossing as he turns to face the other.

“Minseok and Baekhyun had sex?” Is the first thing he says.

Kyungsoo squints at him, then propping himself up on his elbow and letting out a cough. “Apparently.”

“Wait,” Yixing takes a moment, “so does this mean so Minseok and Jongdae will break up and there will be this awkward tension between them that everybody including me will have to bear witness to and deal with?”

“I don’t know.” Kyungsoo answers. “That’s news to me too. Which is why I wanted to listen _without actually going in.”_

“But I needed to wash my hands." It looks like the peach juice is staying for the time being. "And if you go in you get the full context."

“Yeah, and probably my ass beat by Minseok later.” Is Kyungsoo serious? Yixing thought Minseok’s obsession with beating him up was only for training purposes? 

Like something else, he doesn’t ask further. “What did Jongdae mean by Baekhyun’s _roots?_ And what was Baekhyun talking about?” He remembers the mortified looks on both of their faces at the words exchanged.

“Well, Baekhyun’s parents were sex workers. And Jongdae was homeless.”

“Sex workers?” Wait, no, “ _Homeless?”_

“You didn’t know this?” At Yixing’s blank stare, Kyungsoo continues. “Baekhyun has two moms that are sex workers, so that’s why he’s so… _casual_ with it all, and Jongdae was homeless before he came here. He was living in a community shelter trying to find work.”

“Oh, wow.” Yixing has never really considered himself lucky to be in the living situation he is in, but compared to Jongdae, he’s living the dream. And how old was Jongdae then? 

“This is new.” He continues his thoughts. “I mean, I know there are sometimes fights but that seemed very personal.”

“Eh,” Kyungsoo stands up, still extending a hand to Yixing despite having been crushed by him a minute ago. “They’ll get over it. Everyone does.”

“Is there normally drama here?” He thought sixty days here would have given him a full insight on the social dynamics here. But then again, sixty days still kept those facts obscured.

“There’s usually something going on.” Kyungsoo answers impartially. “In terms of probability, sticking a bunch of similarly aged strangers together in a technological utopia with little restrictions is bound to cause something. Especially when the similarly aged strangers are dominantly bisexual tech-age males.”

“That’s true.” Yixing thinks about it and his mind goes to his big fat crush on Junmyeon. Considering the sciences of it all, it’s not unlikely that he’d experience attraction to someone. What is unlikely however is that Junmyeon happens to be perfect in every single way and he can’t get over the feelings for him.

“And it ends like every Disney episode where the characters make up.” This makes him laugh. “Because we’re forced to work together, we’re also kind of forced to get along. But it’s not that hard to once people talk it out.”

“That was very loud talking it out.”

“Well, to be honest, that does seem a bit more serious of a fight. But that’s their problem. Not ours.” Kyungsoo shrugs. It's strange how normal he is, all of the sudden. There is absolutely no trace of the hesitant Kyungsoo who told him to stop talking about it. Yixing doesn't know whether it's comforting or unsettling. Perhaps it's confusing. “And Baekhyun’s quite the drama queen, if you haven’t noticed.”

“I have." But no matter how confusing, what's clear is that pressing won't get him any answers. He's not so sure if _anything_ will... "He acts like a psychopath around me. I was hoping he’d get over it, but it’s been a while and nothing has changed.”

“Cool. And _that_ ,” Kyungsoo says as he turns around to push his back against the gymnasium door handle, “is not _my_ problem.”

“I didn’t say it was your problem. It’s my problem. And I want help with it.”

“Ever heard of individualism?” Kyungsoo quips, and the smirk on his face tells Yixing he had listened in on that discourse with Junmyeon. “I think it’s a great ideology. Especially for situations like this.”

“So are you saying we’re not friends?” Yixing pouts, ignoring the jest.

“Exactly. We’re merely comrades.”

“Then that’s all the more reason to help me. Strictly business purposes.” When Yixing has won a couple moments of contemplation, Kyungsoo suddenly stops. Before he can ask what he’s doing, he sidesteps into a room to his right. Yixing goes to follow, but the door is slammed on him.

He tries the handle, but it doesn't budge.

A laugh of disbelief. “Seriously?”

 _“Yes.”_ He hears Kyungsoo’s slightly muffled voice on the other side of the door.

“Okay, you brat…” Yixing thinks of what will make him open up, because clearly he didn’t go into this room for any reason other than evasion. Though Yixing's not so sure the evasion is because he doesn't want to talk about Baekhyun...

"Come out." He attempts.

 _"No."_

"Please."

_"No."_

“...Oh, _Chanyeol!_ Hi!... What are you doing…? …Okay, fine, Chanyeol’s not actually here. To be honest, I didn’t even think you’d fall for that… now I feel dumb… Okay, bye.”

_“Bye!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi very tiny baby chapter which is basically just plot  
> my chapter lengths are kind of inconsistent because when writing this I just wrote it all in one big ass document lol
> 
> also guys I set up a twitter it is @xiutty (like shitty but with xiu aha get it) and I have 1 follower somebody pls make it 2 :D 
> 
> ok also ///mysterious music///... ksoo definitely didn't act normal. yixing hadn't quite pinpointed why. however, I think an observation between ksoo's body movements + tone of voice and when he was saying what could reveal a bit of the reason. added onto this, something we learned last chapter about something.
> 
> thank you so much for reading!!! <3<3<3


	26. A Cool Place!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following weeks of anticipation, Yixing finally gets to see Exoplanet.

**THE ANTICIPATION** to Exoplanet’s visit only builds with each passing day. Apparently, everyone is in on it to make it a ‘surprise’ for Yixing, offering his burning curiosity nothing but curt sentences and side-eyes to the other people in the room. Even Junmyeon, despite Yixing's several attempts at getting him to spill something (“It’s a cool place, okay? Now please put me down.”).

_A_ _cool place_ is an understatement.

After the large overhang opens, revealing a sky that he’s not sure is faux or real, Yixing puts his training to use and forces through the crowd. There are a couple swears and attempts to smack him (as he makes sure to have Junmyeon and Kyungsoo be the only people he _doesn’t_ push), and he emerges out from the other eight via a harsh shove from either Sehun or Minseok, but he doesn’t care. His mind’s capacity is currently taken up by _woah_ and _what’s that_ (x1000).

The door of the ship has led off into a small tunnel, much reminiscent to those on the ship, except that it’s square. Large metal plates build the walls to the ceiling, which curls upwards in a glass arch. For a moment, Yixing takes a moment to simply look at the sky. Of course, there’s nothing special about it: it’s just black with little white dots that blur in his vision, but it’s still something he hasn’t seen in a long time. About five seconds of staring makes up for the last sixty days.

This hallway must be on some sort of elevated land, because at an angle, he can see Exoplanet’s structure. There are other hall-tunnels in the distance, some leading to massive structures with dome-shaped glass roofs. From what he grasps, it’s a big system of coordinating squares and rectangles. This is all built over a terrain that reminds him of coffee, as the monochrome hues mix together in messy swirls. 

Once given a shove on the shoulder, Yixing focuses back to what’s at the end of the hall, or, rather, right in front of him: the massive atrium.

From first glance, he already knows science-fiction movies have nothing on this. But _nothing-on-this_ not meaning it’s simply _that_ futuristic– rather because it’s different, so the movies just don’t have anything in common with it. The atrium is in the shape of a large cube, which has got to be at least the size of three – equilateral – football fields. The only light is cascaded in from the roof, which gives the room’s contents an almost enchanted glow. From what he can tell, it seems to be cluttered with tables and buttons and transparent walls; stuffed to the brim with things. It’s a stark contrast to the minimalistic vacancy he is used to. An outlier like the rec room.

“Yo, someone turn on the lights,” Yixing now tunes into the mumbling from behind him, turning to see an annoyed Baekhyun. When he catches him looking, he gives a _“What?”,_ as if it’s weird to acknowledge his existence. 

“No one can _turn on the lights,_ stupid.” Now Yixing chooses to look at Jongdae because A) he’s speaking and B) it’s somewhere other than pissy Baekhyun. He is also easier to make out because he's blonde.

“Why’s it so dark? I can’t– _ow!”_ Jongin yelps. “Sehun!”

“I’m _literally_ over here, that wasn’t me– HEY!”

Junmyeon looks down at the floor, which is strange because the next thing he says is, “Did the power go out?”

“Let’s yell RF on three and maybe she’ll hear and everything will power up.”

“No! Let’s not shout!" Shouts Kyungsoo. "Bad idea.”

“One…”

“I said–“

“Two…”

“If you fucking–“

“Three, _RF!”_

Yixing flinches as Jongin’s voice practically bursts his eardrums. Everybody gets annoyed, but it’s Kyungsoo who smacks the yeller upside the head. A kitty-fight ensues between the two, which ends up with the shorter in a headlock.

“Jongin, let me go, I swear to god…”

Suddenly, everything lights up.

Not as in everything catches on fire and eternal damnation yells _surprise!,_ but rather illumination fades in and about a thousand things power up at once, amplified in a loud consolidated machinery noise. Yixing turns from the squabble, eyes widening now that he can see the whole area with clarity.

Exoplanet, despite trying to eradicate this _red_ force, definitely has a favorite color. Now Yixing knows why Junmyeon was looking at the floor. From the corners of the room extend thin red lines, patterning the floor like a computer chip. They trail up the black plated walls (some of which are suddenly _extending from the ground)_ and make similar designs in the ceiling. Stepping forward onto the floor, he also notices that a slight red hue is left in the form of his shoe-print. It disappears after about a second.

The rising walls have divided the cube into several sections, so Yixing enters a now classroom-sized space, made smaller by all the clutter.

The clutter in question gives him a sort of dejá vù, because it's all so similar to something he’d see on earth, but each thing quickly becomes alien when he gets closer. Although he already has no idea what this simple desk is doing here, the weirdly bent leg and askew angle makes him question if it’s even a desk. If so, it can’t be anything useful. The same concept applies to other things he sees: a piano with two sets of interfacing keys, an upside-down wall shelf holding a variety of… inkblots? All of the things seem not only useless, but also completely irrelevant to Exoplanet, to EXO, to the whole operation of saving the universe. It looks like a repository for things made the wrong way, but it's not a contemporary art museum.

“Strange, isn’t it?” Next to him, Kyungsoo fumbles with what seems to be a glass rubik's cube. He sets it back on a checkerboard, and upon contact with the surface it disassembles into several rectangular pieces.

“Yeah.” It feels almost like a wonderland. Although he shouldn’t be questioning it anymore, how the hell did that solid thing just suddenly split up and how is that table bent like that and still standing when there’s gravity and why is the inkblot Jongin’s holding up changing shape?

“Okay, I don’t like this.” Yixing decides after receiving a weird sensation from staring at Jongin’s inkblot from afar. He looks back to the checkerboard, focusing onto the glass pieces… which are now all _diamonds?_ Is this what is included in being high? A lack of correct perception and therefore hallucinations like this? That’s nice to know, but Yixing is currently not high so he becomes a bit scared.

“Why?” Kyungsoo raises a thick brow, fiddling with one of the diamonds. All of a sudden, his voice is low, cryptic.

“Does it make you uncomfortable...? _Afraid,_ even?”

_Yes, now that you’re speaking as if there’s obviously a reason I should be uncomfortable and afraid,_ Yixing is about to say when Chanyeol interrupts.

“Don’t be mean, Soo.” He frowns, then smiling at Yixing. “Don’t worry, Yixing-hyung. This room is supposed to be weird. It’s because it’s like a dump.”

“Huh?”

_“Come on,”_ Kyungsoo punches the taller in the shoulder, “and he was _just_ beginning to look genuinely concerned.” Chanyeol laughs, though it may be one of those I’m-actually-suffering ones from the way he rubs the hit spot.

“Well– well anyway,” He continues, “what I mean is that this place is home to mistakes. Like, when a civilization creates something, sometimes it can be dangerous for their planet. Or maybe they just don’t have the capacity for it. We often take care of that stuff and just bring it here, if we’re asked to.”

About a thousand questions elicit.

“Things like what? How can it be too _dangerous_ if the civilization made it? And, _civilization?_ They _ask? They?"_

Chanyeol’s eyes widen slightly at the influx of questions. Kyungsoo stops playing with one of the diamonds to squint at him, “Yes, aliens exist. I’m guessing you knew that…” Of course Yixing has mulled over the aspect of aliens. The conclusion he came to is that it’s definitely possible, just not determined yet. Hence the surprise.

“And it’s the same principle as Earth." Kyungsoo goes on. "We can create things detrimental to our planet, like nukes or pollution causing machines.” Yixing is suddenly wary of that table. “However, a lot don’t like to keep those kinds of things. Most alien civilizations EXO has close contact with. Chanyeol’s the one who does that all, actually. And they’ll ask him–“

“You talk to aliens?” Yixing’s curiosity (read: self, but he’s going to blame it on an emotion) interrupts.

“Yep!” Chanyeol nods. Kyungsoo sends a glare, but is quickly wrapped up in Chanyeol talking. “I take care of all our alien relations. Well, it’s officially called Alien Communications. Most, if not _all,_ the aliens know what we do here, with the Tree, and they’re really thankful for it, so we have good ties with almost everyone… _oh!_ This one time, I taught this tiny alien how to play basketball. Like, on that planet there were recreation, but not anything like basketball. And– and so then they shared it with their friends and then they all played and it was so cute!”

_“Yeah.”_ It’s almost funny how effortlessly Chanyeol makes Kyungsoo melt. The latter quickly snaps out of it, though. “Anyway, like Chanyeol said, sometimes they make things too dangerous for themselves. So they ask us to take it and we put it here.”

“Okay…” Yixing is still processing an image of a bunch of little green humanoid-reminiscent (because what _does_ an alien look like?) things dunking on each other. Then he looks up, scanning the room.

“Why _here?_ If it’s dangerous, why would _Exoplanet_ keep it?” No offense, but if it's the aliens or him, his choice is already made. 

Chanyeol answers, “Well, different planets are surrounded by different stars and suns with different temperatures, and this makes different elements with different abilities.” And since when was he so scientifically inclined? Perhaps Yixing should talk to him more than the one time a week they run into each other in the hall (“Hey, Hyung.” “Hello.” And then Chanyeol’s off like he’s got somewhere to be). “I’m not sure of the exacts, but I know this room has something that stifles the effects of these things.”

“That’s cool. I think I knew that.” Only now Yixing recalls a science class where he had been told about nuclear fusion and how different sources can produce different things. It makes total sense and now he feels a little less freaked out. Almost everything is possible, just maybe not in one area. Maybe a couple million astronomical units away.

A couple moments of silence between the group before Chanyeol speaks again. “Hey, Soo, we should be the ones to tour Yixing-hyung! I know Jongdae said he wanted to do it, but like, if we did it first… I have time off…”

_People want to spend time with me?_ This is a concept new to Yixing, amongst the hundreds of other things he has discovered in space. It’s probably because he’s still pretty new.

“Genius, Yeol.” Kyungsoo gives a side glance to Jongdae, who, if he was planning on touring Yixing, seems to have forgotten as he is busy with stacking what looks like jenga blocks in Jongin’s open mouth.

“Let’s go out the other way.” He decides although Yixing has never actually yet consented to a tour. But he would rather get out of here than stay and know where he’s going than not, so he follows.

Once they pass one of the walls that had risen during the powering up, it gets so narrow that they have to walk single file. Yixing is in the back, wondering what a claustrophobic person would do in this situation and whether looking up at the glass ceiling would help or not. Even though he’s not claustrophobic, he still tries it. All that happens is that he trips on his own footing, stumbling forwards into the back of Chanyeol, who lets out a surprised yelp.

“Sorry!” Yixing apologizes sheepishly, standing upright. Luckily, no domino effect had happened as Chanyeol’s a pretty sturdy structure. He briefly wonders what Chanyeol hugs would be like. Probably like Namjoon hugs, because Namjoon is taller than him too, but Chanyeol seems to be a bit taller and pudgier than Namjoon so maybe it’s that times zero point two. For a moment, Yixing tries to visualize his best friend, standing in front of him, offering some kind of sanctuary to this whole thing. However, it doesn’t work. It simply doesn’t compute Namjoon's lanky structure, tan skin, brown hair, that one jacket he usually wears; nothing shows up.

This scares him.

“Hyung, you coming?” He looks up to (not see Namjoon and) realize Chanyeol and Kyungsoo hadn't stopped with his stupor and now they’re looking back at him confusedly.

“Yes.” He doesn’t bother to reason why he had stalled, catching right up but making sure to stay a couple paces back in case he trips again.

Before he can fall into another sea of thought, they emerge from the maze of walls and Kyungsoo begins talking. “Exoplanet is pretty interesting because it holds all the extra stuff RF didn’t bother to have on the ship.” As he’s saying this, Yixing observes his new surroundings. It’s another hallway, but this time very wide, and some of the walls hold windows to see into the rooms. The floor is still lined with the red – Yixing assumes that is going to be the design of the whole place – like the inside of a giant computer. The best part about it all, which is also the part of the biggest disparity between Exoplanet and the ship, is the open ceiling. It lets the moon and star light shine in which gives everything an Earth-like, natural touch. It’s liberating. He feels like he can breathe better now than he has been for the last sixty plus days.

“Such as anti-gravity rooms, or toilets that have gravity–“ Okay, Exoplanet > EXOship. “or, my personal favourite, libraries. With actual books. Most of them are translated into Korean, but some are still in their original languages. So be careful when opening a book and make sure to hold it at least a foot away from your face.”

“Some aliens don't communicate by written language,” Chanyeol explains, “like… oh! I know. Yixing-hyung, look.”

Yixing turns around from the room he was trying to see something in (because the lights were off and people were speaking so he couldn’t ask to turn the lights on), eyebrows raised.

Chanyeol holds up a hand, and for a moment, nothing happens. Then, his palm suddenly lights up, bursting aflame. Yixing’s eyes widen as he takes a step back, watching the flame wiggle and smoke. He knows Chanyeol has fire for a power, but has rarely seen it up close. It makes him question whether he’s seeing right, though he already knows the answer.

“Did you see that?” 

Yixing looks up from the flame to him. “The fire? Yes, I see that pretty clearly.”

“No, what I said.” Kyungsoo comes over, staring at the flame, and then up to Chanyeol.

The fire-bender giggles at Yixing’s silence. “I said, ‘my name is Chanyeol.’”

His mouth drops open in _how,_ but he's answered before he asks. “In this language, the aliens who speak it do it by sight, because they’re closely knit with the fire element and can make out all of the tiny movements. In Korean it’s called _planet two-eight-four, language two."_

Yixing puts this with his scientific knowledge. “So do they communicate by manipulating oxygen around the flame? Or, just, the elements in the fire?” 

Kyungsoo nods. “Yeah, exactly. One of those. But anyway, that’s what I mean when I say don’t open a book very close to your face.”

Chanyeol laughs at this, but it’s that I’m-actually-suffering laugh and then he looks down, clearly blinking some kind of bad memory away.

They continue down the hallway and Kyungsoo continues his tour-guide-ing. “Exoplanet, if you haven’t observed by now, is structured by equiangular shapes. Mostly squares and cubes and rectangles, so everything can be computed into a grid easily. It’s similar to the ship structure, because everything of importance centers around here, where we entered, and then as you get further from it the importance lessens.”

That’s good to hear, Yixing thinks. But if there’s a _too far_ on the ship, does that mean there’s a _too far_ here as well?

“The cube extends into four hallways, north south east and west, and then those split into more and more smaller ones.” Kyungsoo points left to where there’s an adjacent hall. “Each large one doesn’t really have an organization, which is kind of frustrating, so you’ll just have to learn what’s where. However, we do each have our own separate rooms here.”

Separate rooms? That’s _great_ to hear! No more Sehun snoring. No more Mindae bed giggles. No more _other people!_

“How long do these visits last, exactly?” Yixing wants to know how many nights he’ll get a perfect sleep for.

“Usually less than a week.” Saddens his heart. “I mean, this time RF _did_ say she was going to actually come for work or something, but typically Exoplanet’s pure purpose is restock. It’s basically robots doing a bunch of cargo loading and we get to play around. We _are_ sometimes called in for labor, though. And some can still access the work they do here."

“It’s always me first.” Chanyeol frowns. _“While_ I already do so much work.”

“And I’m last with Jongdae.” Kyungsoo grins. “It’s good to be small, sometimes.”

Chanyeol looks down to Small Kyungsoo, “I wish _I_ was small. Then I could get oversized clothes easier and be really cute and not the first called for manual labor. Like you, Soo!”

Yixing reads Kyungsoo’s expression: eyes aimed to the floor, a shy smile. He knows the feeling too well.

“Yeah, anyway,” Kyungsoo continues and Yixing watches Chanyeol’s face falter at the unacknowledgement. Maybe Kyungsoo regrets brushing it off, maybe he doesn’t. “That's also why there’s just so much… _stuff_ , here. You can probably find _anything_ , to be honest.”

“There’s _real_ food here.” Chanyeol beams. “I think that’s one of the best parts. The real food. No one really bothers to get together for dinners, though. That’s just mission tradition– hey, that rhymes!”

From Kyungsoo’s statement, Yixing wonders, “What is the strangest thing someone has gotten here?”

At the posed question, both exchange a look, meeting each other’s eyes and then bouncing off to the floor in thought. That means there must have been a _lot_ of strange things procured here, if they have to think about it.

“One time...” Kyungsoo starts, “Baekhyun somehow acquired three thousand hour’s worth of hentai. He kept bragging about how it was unpixellated.”

A mirthful smile grows on Chanyeol's face, “That was funny. Until he brought Sehun into it.”

Even though that was where it apparently stopped being funny, Kyungsoo laughs. “No, that was the funniest part.”

“You’re only saying that because he let you in on it.”

“As if you didn’t watch it too."

Yixing inconspicuously asks, “Does he still have it?” Because he is simply wondering and not because he wants it. (But does it include Yaoi? Shibari? Korean subs? Porn with plot is the work of god).

Both turn to him in eerie synchrony.

“Um, why would you _want_ it?”

“That’s weird.”

Yixing blinks, jaw dropping in indignance as he reddens. “You both were _literally_ just saying how–“

“Anyway~” For a moment Yixing considers hitting Kyungsoo, but then remembers the way Kyungsoo had smacked big strong Jongin and thinks better of it. “I also wanted to show you this room.” He stops at a door. He types in the passcode (because there are unfortunately passcodes here too), a granting beep emitting from the keypad.

“The records room.” The door creaks as he opens it, flicking on a light. It’s so dim that Yixing can barely see three feet in front of him, but apparently it's the only light because Kyungsoo casually strides off into oblivion.

“I still don’t get your interest in it.” Chanyeol leans against the wall, crossing his arms.

“Because…” All of the sudden, the room _does_ light up. However, it’s not from anything above. Instead, several different screens pop up on one of the walls, showing what seems to be security cameras.

“Stalking.” Chanyeol scoffs.

“No, _lurking._ That term is offensive.” Kyungsoo gets a laugh out of his crush. “Also, there are literally records of _everything that’s ever happened_ in here. Did you know that Red Velvet’s Joy is actually a lesbian?” At the dead silence, he _tsks._ “Exactly.”

As Yixing is wondering how that information is obtained from a planet EXO isn’t even known to, he approaches the security cameras, realizing there are so many screens that they go above his head and to his feet. He immediately searches for Junmyeon and is surprised to actually find him. He's sitting at a table, eating a plate of pasta in solitude. He looks lonely. He needs company. Company by the name of Zhang Yixing.

“What’cha looking at?’ Chanyeol startles him. When did he get right there?

“Um,” Yixing’s eyes search for something else, but then stops. Why is he so nervous? He has no reason to be. “Junmyeon. I’m looking to see what everyone is doing.”

“Ah,” He feels the taller presence subside and continues to watch Junmyeon. He's about halfway done with the pasta, and there is an almost perfect circle of sauce in the middle which he strategically dips the untouched noodles on the outside in. How smart. His mind is beautiful. In the background, Kyungsoo is rambling about something about the room he should probably be listening to, but he can currently watch his crush without him knowing so he’s not very focused. Alone, Junmyeon doesn’t seem to be much different, and even picks up a noodle with a napkin after it falls off his fork onto the floor. What a saint.

“What the…” Chanyeol mutters from a bit away. “Hey, Yixing-hyung, come look at this.”

Yixing says goodbye to Junmyeon in his head and heads over to the channel Chanyeol (say that five times fast) is watching. In some sort of lounge room, Minseok is sitting criss-cross on a couch while Baekhyun shoves marshmallows into his mouth, Jongdae not far behind doing something that probably involves making noise. Weird, but not very surprising. Wait, but weren’t Jongdae and Baekhyun fighting?

Maybe Kyungsoo’s right: they do get over things fast. (But did they talk it out or did they fuck it out?).

“How many have they done?” Yixing asks once Minseok shoves another white fluff into his stuffed cheeks. With the eyes, he really does look like a cat. Now if someone could just draw whiskers… 

“Twelve.” Chanyeol says, eyes glued to the screen. Yixing’s brows shoot up in surprise, trying to imagine putting twelve whole marshmallows in his mouth. They’re pretty big too, from the looks of it.

“Are you guys even listening?!” Calls an exasperated Kyungsoo.

_“No.”_ Is answered in harmony.

When they get to fifteen, Minseok puts a hand up. As they pause, he goes to work, contorting his face in weird positions and poking at the white expanse in his mouth to minimize the area occupied. He seems pretty serious about this. They all do. 

Just as they continue, Yixing is yanked by the collar.

_“Hey!”_ He yelps, the skin on his neck burning. Kyungsoo crosses his arms, clearly unimpressed. That’s unfair. Yixing is more unimpressed.

“It was my last resort, _I swear,”_ Kyungsoo doesn’t even try to make the lie sound convincing, “Anyway, check this out.”

“What?” Yixing glances to the screen, seeing Jongin and Sehun fighting in some room. What’s so out of the ordinary about that? That’s worth being choked over? “I don’t see anything strange.”

“So you’ve seen Sehun and Jongin being civilized?”

Yixing takes a closer look. To his shock, Jongin and Sehun actually aren’t fighting. Instead, it seems they are simply sharing a meal and talking. They’re both hunched over the same tray full of small little bowls, eating the same entree without any food being thrown.

“Okay, that is strange.” Yixing agrees. “Why are they being civilized?”

“Well, their anger at each other goes on and off, like the little kids they are. But it always ends up back to anger.” Yixing suddenly recalls when they had watched Titanic. The way Jongin and Sehun kept fighting for the seat but eventually ended up cuddling. That kind of intimacy was never seen again. 

Until now. Yixing has to squint when he sees Sehun actually _smile._ In the presence of his mortal enemy, too. It’s like looking at an alternate universe, because whenever Yixing is in their presence both expressions will be in some sort of annoyed grimace. He never thought it would be weird to see Jongin smile.

“They’ll be back to hating each other tomorrow.” Kyungsoo sighs, “It’s kind of funny, but mostly annoying, because Jongin will complain to me and Sehun will complain to Junmyeon cause they just can’t solve their own fucking problems.”

“I see.” Yixing nods. “Have you and Junmyeon ever tried solving it for them?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Junmyeon doesn’t know that I know Sehun tells him everything. So no.”

“Wait, so you know…” He connects the dots in his head. So Kyungsoo’s this third party that just seems to know everything. “How do you know that?”

Kyungsoo gives him a look. “Are you _not_ seeing this whole room? I have my ways of knowing pretty much everything that goes on.”

“Oh…” Yixing nods sheepishly. Wait, does this mean he knows about his huge crush on Junmyeon? If so… one: how? What gave it away? And two: that’s worrying, because even though in theory Yixing trusts Kyungsoo, the prospect of him knowing that Yixing has this undying love for Kim Junmyeon is unnerving not because he thinks he’ll go around telling people but because Kim Junmyeon himself doesn’t even know and he should be the second one to know (after Yixing) because if not that is unorganized. Also Yixing has a strong feeling he’d be teased for it.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t on my list of people I would blackmail.” Kyungsoo smiles, but it’s more of a threatening one as if saying _and make sure it stays that way_.

“Cool, cool.” Yixing finds himself watching Junmyeon walk to the bathroom. They don’t hold any cameras, it seems.

“Um… guys.” Chanyeol says after a little bit. Yixing looks, kind of concerned because his tone of voice sounds like someone had died. 

“What?” Kyungsoo asks.

“Minseokie just threw up…”

“Seriously?” Laughing, Kyungsoo heads over, and Yixing trails behind. On the small screen is a scene of chaos: on the couch is a doubled over Minseok, hovering above a messy pile of white vomit as Baekhyun is laughing and Jongdae looks like he’s about to cry. The latter two exchange a glance, and shockingly enough, they both simply _leave_ the room. It doesn’t look like they had told Minseok, though, because he looks up perplexed, then shouting something.

“Is there sound for this?” Yixing asks.

“Yeah, hold on.” Kyungsoo then disappears into one of the darker parts of the room. All of a sudden, a loud fuzz noise blasts, and Yixing and Chanyeol both cover their ears. Once Yixing sees the other take his hands off he does too, the noise still ringing in his head.

“Sorry!” Calls a sheepish Kyungsoo as he heads back over, focusing back onto the screen which now has sound.

_“Guys!”_ Minseok is calling, standing up and moving away from the vomit. He uses the marshmallow bag to wipe his mouth, then throwing it into the pile. However, he quickly backs up to the wall opposite, which gives Yixing the hint that he doesn’t particularly enjoy regurgitation. He sinks down to the floor, just staring at his knees.

Then he hears _“Junmyeon!”,_ but it’s not from Minseok nor the voices in his head.

All three turn at once. One of the screens near shows a hallway with Baekhyun and Jongdae running towards an innocent Junmyeon, who has just come out of the bathroom.

_“Hyung.”_ They’re both panting from the run, so Baekhyun’s words take a little while to come. _“Minseok… just, threw up… and it’s gross… and yeah...”_

_“Oh, that’s not good.”_ Junmyeon replies with a worried countenance _, “Is he okay? Why did he throw up?”_

_“Chubby bunny challenge.”_ Jongdae answers, then perking up. _“Hey, you should try it too!”_

_“Dude, yeah! Those cheeks of yours have gotta be worth something.”_ Baekhyun is then pinching Junmyeon’s cheeks, which makes Yixing A) angry for some reason and B) disappointed in himself because it clearly isn’t that hard to just touch his face.

Junmyeon chuckles, putting his hands to his cheeks and gosh he’s so cute! _“Okay, maybe some time, but considering Minseok just threw up… wait, why are you telling_ me _about this? Did he get really upset?_ _”_

_“No, no– he's fine."_ Baekhyun says though Minseok who is now curled up into a ball doesn't look Fine. _"We were hoping, that, um, you could, point us to the cleaning stuff…”_ Yixing’s brows furrow, because wasn’t RF _just_ talking about cleaning bots? Or are they only on the ship?

_“Or just clean it up for us, kind and generous Junmyeonnie-hyung~”_ Jongdae folds his hands under his chin, leaning forward with a cutesy face. Yixing frowns, because he actually does look cute and Junmyeon is totally going to say–

_“Alright.”_ And that’s not fair! _“But I don’t see why you can’t do it yourselves. I wasn’t the one doing something stupid.”_

_“I have emeto–”_

_“I have emetophobia–“_ Baekhyun and Jongdae exchange betrayed glares. Junmyeon rolls his eyes.

_“Or, if you want to lie, then you can do it yourselves.”_ At this, Yixing almost lets out a cheer. It feels like when one of the characters in a drama has actually made a smart and sensible decision. You go Junmyeon!

“He’s still going to do it.” Kyungsoo interrupts the drama. “Just you watch.”

“But he…” Automatically, he stands up for Junmyeon, but Yixing thinks this over. “Okay, yeah.”

_“But Hyung!”_ Jongdae whines. _“With your power you can simply evaporate it! We’d have to go through so much when it could be solved within just a couple seconds.”_

_“Yeah!”_ Baekhyun backs him up. _“And what was that, you were talking with_ him _the other day about…”_ Yixing. He means Yixing. God, why doesn’t he just start saying He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? _“Practicality? And how nice it is.”_

“Yixing, _yes, I was.”_ He feels honored Junmyeon sort of calls Baekhyun out on his pettiness. You go Junmyeon(2)! _“But I think it was Yixing who said–“_

_“Oh my god, great!”_ Baekhyun wraps an arm around Junmyeon’s shoulders, Jongdae immediately joining on the other side. They both start walking, bringing their beloved leader towards the vomit room. _“We love you, Junmyeon-hyung. You know that?”_

Junmyeon sighs, giving in. _“Yes, I love you guys too… but speaking of who actually has emetophobia, where_ is _Minseok?”_

At this, another glance is exchanged between two-thirds of the Unholy Trinity. The third-third laughs along with Yixing and Kyungsoo, and then looks up.

“Hey, where are Sehun and Jongin, by the way?”

“They’re currently sharing a nice meal.” Kyungsoo answers casually.

“Wait, _what?”_

So then the same thing happens where Kyungsoo explains and Chanyeol asks how Kyungsoo always knows so much. However, unlike last time, he does not threaten Chanyeol with the blackmail of his personal information. By the time this is over, Jongdae, Baekhyun, and Junmyeon are back in the vomit room. Junmyeon is shoved towards said vomit via Baekhyun while Jongdae rushes towards his boyfriend, coddling him as if he hadn't just left him alone in the room five minutes ago.

_“Are you okay, babe?”_ Baekhyun scoffs as Jongdae pets Minseok’s head, beckoning him out of his ball.

_“Yeah, just feeling sick.”_ Minseok replies, eyes shut tight. _“Because of the sick.”_

Yixing then watches Junmyeon, who holds his hands out over the puke.

However, the plot twist comes in, and just as his pretty face is contorting into effort, something appears. Although it first looks like a glitch on the screen, it’s quickly recognizable as Jongin, who, _naked(?!),_ stumbles into the pile of vomit. He slips backwards, not only falling into it but also kicking a large chunk up, sending it straight into a staring Baekhyun. In that moment several screams are let out and Baekhyun claws at his face hysterically, turning to Minseok who suddenly gets scared and punches him across the cheek sending him to the ground and now he seems to be asleep and Minseok wipes the hand on the unconscious boy’s shirt, and Jongdae’s eyes widen at the naked Jongin (Yixing had almost forgotten that huge scar existed) and he decides it’s a good idea to throw one of the couch cushions at him, yelling _DECENCY, CHILD!_ and Jongin screams meanwhile a stupefied Junmyeon stands in the middle of it all, soon receiving a splatter of vomit to the shirt.

And _these_ are the people saving the universe, remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello
> 
> I went off the cube in the tempo mv for the interior of exoplanet!! I still think that mv is the coolest fucking thing man   
> and ig u could say obsession mv (ze chën scenes) 4 the records room tho this was written way before that came out
> 
> thank you for reading <3<3 until next friday~ have a good week!!!


	27. Pretty Colors – Not Just a Bro-Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing does some inquiry into his relationship with Junmyeon.

**LATER,** when Yixing mentions this to Junmyeon, he gets a bristled response.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, that’s fine.” Yixing shrugs even though the other can’t see it because he’s currently in front of him, leading the way to _something-I-want-you-to-see._ Yixing assumes it’ll be some sort of amazing view or something because Junmyeon is the type of sappy person to do that. “I saw everything anyway.”

“What?” Junmyeon gives a brief glance back, eyebrows knit. A ray of moonlight from the open roof slits across his face and his eyes sparkle and Yixing almost trips.

_“Shit–_ I mean– Kyungsoo and Chanyeol gave me a tour of the place.” Luckily Junmyeon is faced forward again so he doesn’t see Yixing’s stumbling. “And I ended up in some sort of security slash records room. I got to see what everybody was doing. You were eating pasta and you dropped a noodle and picked it up like the faithful samaritan you are. Even if no one would have known it was yours.”

Junmyeon laughs quietly, maybe a bit shy, “It’s not like anyone else was going to pick it up. And also, that’s a little unnerving.”

“That’s what I said too.” Yixing agrees. “But apparently it’s one of Kyungsoo’s hobbies. And doesn’t RF watch us all the time?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Junmyeon turns onto yet _another_ flight of stairs, adding to Yixing’s suspicion. 

“Come on.” Yixing says as he starts up the steps. “I know it’s a view. Just admit it.”

“No. You don’t know that.”

“I am almost positive.” He consolidates his evidence. “You’re a sappy person, and sappy people like you like to show things like cool views because it’s meaningful to you, and we’ve gone up at least five flights of stairs, and you keep responding with the same thing every time I ask.” Yixing had also thought that the venturing into the unknown for the first time since his burn would be a bit nerve-wracking, but when he’s distracted talking to Junmyeon and the hallways look totally different and the freedom of the galaxy is above, nothing seems bad; nothing is bad.

“Who said I’m a sappy person?” Junmyeon stops for a moment, stalling between a hallway and another flight. Unfortunately, he takes the latter.

“Me.” Yixing believes he is a pretty reliable source when it comes to judge of character. “And probably Urban Dictionary too, if you look it up. But you can’t, so me.”

When Junmyeon doesn’t respond, he goes on. “Are you not going to say it because you feel as if your surprise is completely invalidated by me knowing it beforehand?”

“You know what?” Oh! He’s going to give in! “Let’s play the quiet game.”

Oh… _hey!_

“That’s not nice.” Yixing frowns, “I think I’m going to cry.”

“Yixing, you’re not very good at this.”

“That’s it. I’m crying.” 

“I already fell for that once and I’m not going to again.”

“You’re the cause of my internal angst, Junmyeon. When you’re mean like this, it only worsens it, making me feel like less and less of a human being worth anything.” It’s funny because it’s somewhat true: the first part, where Yixing has internal angst. Junmyeon makes him angsty because Junmyeon causes his torture because Yixing does a lot of dumb things because of Junmyeon and that makes him very vulnerable.

However, it seems that Junmyeon has now learned Yixing’s ways, because he is not turning around with a guilty look on his face. It’s good and bad, because B) Yixing now can’t mess with him as easily and G) this means they are close. “Well, I’m sorry about–”

_“Shh!_ You suck at this game.” 

Junmyeon whips around, an indignant expression as he retorts, “But you didn’t even _say_ we were playing!”

“That’s the point. To _not_ say anything.” Yixing grins, earning a scoff.

“Whatever.” Junmyeon then reaches another intersection of flight versus hall. This time, he also takes the latter, except the latter is now the hall so Yixing’s legs get a respite.

Once he opens the door, though, Yixing quickly realizes this is not the hall, but the destination.

“And it’s a view.” He enters a roomy space, all hollow except for a telescope in the middle, aimed up to the sky. Lining the sides are cushioned seats, making for comfortable stargazing. There are no lights, it seems the wires on the walls and floor are off, so everything the galaxy provides is what illuminates the room. Junmyeon heads straight to the telescope.

“Okay, yeah, you were right,” It seems he is looking for something by the way he points it all around. “But I didn’t bring you here _just_ because it’s a view. I wanted you to see something.”

“That’s… that’s called a view, Junmyeonnie.” Yixing steps back so as to not be hit with the end of the telescope, wondering what the hell he’s looking for.

Another scoff. “I– I mean, something specific. Trust me, you’ll actually like it… _aha!_ Got it.” Junmyeon then steps back from the telescope, waving him over. “Come look.”

Yixing comes to the beckon. Junmyeon steps back again to let him take the instrument but keeps a hand stabilized to have it pointed a certain direction; it must be something _really_ specific. When Yixing angles himself to see properly, he’s distracted by a hand on his back. He feels himself blushing and quickly looks into the eyepiece to not focus on the touch.

Through the tunnel view, there is blue. 

And then green.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s Earth. Or, at least, something that looks a lot like Earth. The planet is almost perfectly aligned with the circular shape of the periscope, letting him see it wholly. Although white covers a lot of it, he does make out Africa… Russia… Asia….

South Korea.

Suddenly, images of what Yixing has lost come flooding into his mind and he quickly backs up into reality. He brushes his mother and best friend off, his high school off, his adulthood off, his freedom off, his future petshop career off, his phone off, Paopao off, Cat off, seemingly-irrelevant-but-still-part-of-his-life-things-like-his-local-ice-cream-shop-owner-with-the-weird-mustache off, and looks at Junmyeon. The room. Reality. Where he is now, and may be forever. 

Something clenches in his chest.

“Are you alright?” Junmyeon asks softly and Yixing realizes he might look a bit shaken.

“Yes.” He snaps out of it, then looking up to where the telescope is pointed. Even squinting and standing on his tippy-toes, Yixing can’t see anything but several white dots. Not even a particle of planet Earth. It almost makes him wonder if it’s just a cruel trick.

“It’s there, I promise.” Junmyeon reads his mind. “This telescope is more powerful than anything you’ve seen on Earth.”

“That’s…” Yixing is careful not to touch the instrument as he studies it. He can’t find any difference from what he’s seen on Earth. “Really cool.”

Junmyeon breaks into a triumphant grin similar to when Yixing had said he liked the golden sheep. “See? I knew you would like it~” And, also similar to when Yixing had said he liked the golden sheep, Yixing quickly averts his attention so he doesn't combust.

“Okay.” He looks back into the telescope (will Junmyeon put his hand on his back again? Not that it’s what he’s focused on…), this time stifling the influx of memories. Instead, he focuses on Africa. On Egypt. Then, he looks at the space around the planet. Can he see any of the space stations?

Holy shit. He _can._

_“Woah,”_ Yixing voices. He discovers a scroller on the side of the telescope and zooms in. “I think I see NASA. Or whichever space program has things up there. Now that I think about it, _they’re_ the ones inexperienced with space. Inexperienced, but way more educated. Most of them probably have a PHD. They’re probably smarter than all of us. Why aren’t _they_ the ones doing this?”

“Good question.” Junmyeon replies. “Also, I’m going to sit.” There are then footsteps and the impact of a cushion. 

Yixing still lets him in on everything he’s seeing. “The maps portray the poles wrong. They’re more circular. Is there a super zoom on this thing? I want to see penguins. If they are real.”

“You know, I wonder what this telescope is made of. Because nuclear fusion in these parts of space has different capabilities than that of the Milky Way– meaning hotter or colder suns can make different elements. Maybe some places would be astonished by oxygen.”

“I think that’s where our powers come from. It’s just strange how they are compatible with human bodies. Perhaps it was totally coincidental, and that’s why aliens are not restoring the Tree of Life right now.”

“Junmyeon, where do you live?”

At this, Junmyeon takes a probably surprised moment before answering. “Daejeon. Or, if you want to get specific, Daejeon-si Daedok-gu Paljik-gil twenty-three. I went to Daejeon Gwanjan High School, but I think I’ve told you that.”

“Yes.” Yixing remembers talking about their high schools and coming to the consensus that because Junmyeon’s high school is for the rich and other factors, it is better. “You just told me your address. But it’s weird, because there’s nothing I can really do with that information.”

“Exactly.” Junmyeon chuckles. “But also, hypothetically, if we ever got back to Earth… you could like, come over.”

“Sure. I’ll bring rice cakes and tell your mom that I am the boy from the spaceship.”

Junmyeon laughs, and it’s such a pure sound that Yixing gets butterflies in his stomach. He bats them away, refocusing on North America. And then North Korea. And then North America. And then he tries to find Idaho. Isn’t it what they call a _state?_

“Gosh, it seems almost as stressful going back as it does coming here.” Junmyeon says. “I mean, fathoming that we _are_ going back is one thing, and then actually going back. And if there’s no weird time warp, all the questions and stuff we’ll get, and all the attention from people– it sounds so difficult. But it’d make so many people happy. My family would be happy. I would be happy, besides all the stress.”

“I think my mom would too.” Yixing replies. “I mean, for the first month or so I bet she was enjoying my absence. But now I think she misses me, as I am her. Kind of.”

“Awe, I don’t think I’ve _ever_ heard you talk about your mother in a positive way before.” Junmyeon teases.

“Well– _no–_ actually– yeah, that might be true.” Yixing is so glad he’s currently in space so his mother isn’t hearing this. After staring at Italy one more time and not finding the Mafia headquarters much less where Italy’s borders even are, he steps away from the telescope. He turns to Junmyeon, then heading over to the couch and plopping down next to him. They’re practically in the corner.

Junmyeon is looking up, a dreamy glint to his eyes. Yixing looks to where he’s looking, giving a sarcastic, _“Wow._ Pretty colors.”

“Shut up,” Junmyeon whines, but his eyes don’t come off the sky, “they _are_ pretty colors…”

And Yixing just shrugs, because although they may be pretty, Junmyeon is prettier.

He really doesn’t find the same enchantment in the integrated hues as he does in Junmyeon’s skin, candescent and pale in the moonlight. The shapes the galaxies make are messy and unorganized, while every curve and flat of Junmyeon is perfectly proportioned; everything in just the right place. And the stars, no matter how much they shine, are nothing but a dying match, no match, when contrasted to Junmyeon. His smile. When his cheeks lift and eyes crescent and teeth beam far brighter than any sun. The stars have nothing on Junmyeon, nor do a thousand suns, a thousand pretty colors.

Holy shit, Yixing is _so_ whipped.

This thought goes through his head as a surge of confidence suddenly empowers him. Here, right now, in this place, he should say it. He’s absolutely positive Junmyeon likes him. He _has_ to. He has done all the romantic things a sappy romantic person would do and he seems to like him and there’s always a certain tension that says their affection hasn’t reached its potential. And although Yixing is one for wasting potential, he is _not_ going to let this opportunity slip through his fingers. Not this time. Come on, do it, Yixing. Say something.

“Are you gay?”

At the sudden blurt, Junmyeon looks, brows raised.

“As in, homosexual.” Yixing then begins to over-detail. It’s a mechanism to get the absolute surgical precise correct message across but it’s also an embarrassment factor. "As in, you are willing to be in an intimate relationship with another male– or even, just bisexual, or something that does that. With another dude. Question mark." 

"Um," Oh no, _hesitance!_ Fuck, was this a mistake?! Or is he just taken aback by the sudden inquiry on his sexuality? This and the way he worded the question brings heat up to Yixing’s cheeks, back, neck, and for a couple seconds he’s on fire.

"Yeah, I am… Why?"

And then doused with water. Words can't even describe the relief of that moment. So Junmyeon isn't weirded out, he's just off-put by the randomness of the question, just like any normal human being would be. Junmyeon’s brows then quirk slightly, and Yixing realizes:

Right. He had asked why.

_Isn't this what you wanted?!_ Yixing's mind is screaming at him while every other part of him chants _no, don't!_ (this while the room is absolutely silent and they are both dead still). He struggles to overpower the majority, hence his words emerging in a schoolgirl-like nervousness.

"Okay, well– well, I like you." Okay, that's good, that's step one. Now elaborate.

"As in, I like you more than a bro and friend– like, like in that gay homosexual romantic way and I want to be in a relationship with you– or, I don't know, at least– I just want to let you know that… because– yeah…” And _his_ feelings too! What about those? 

"And I want to know if you feel the same– or, similarly, or not, so if needed I can try to stop feeling this way about you and we can just be bros. The end. Question mark."

Not smooth at all, but it gets the point across. 

The next couple seconds are the most apprehensive of Yixing's life, as he just has to _sit there_ and watch the biggest crush he has ever had contemplate his garbled confession and say that either A) _I like you too_ _let’s get married_ or B) _oh you are misunderstood I do not like you in that way we are just bros haha_. But if it ends up being B Yixing thinks he might cry which will be even more embarrassing than his stutter-fest and he may just have to avoid Junmyeon for the rest of his life. No Junmyeon's mother, no rice cakes, no boy from the spaceship.

Then, Junmyeon _finally_ reaches a verdict.

"I thought it was obvious." At this, Yixing's eyes bulge because _what_ was obvious?!

Junmyeon must see this as he hurriedly goes on. "Obvious– obvious that I liked you. I like you. In that same way.” 

"Oh." The answer takes a moment to set in, but once it does, Yixing feels something like euphoria. He is suddenly smiling and can't stop no matter how weird it probably looks at the moment. 

"That's good…” He is looking at his lap instead of the man who just said he has romantic feelings for him. Junmyeon likes him! To be honest, he's not very surprised. But he's sure happy! He then looks up. "Wait, what do you mean obvious?"

"Well," Junmyeon is all blushes and shyness too and Yixing just wants to kiss him– and that's now genuinely possible! "I enjoy spending time with you, just you, I like to get you little gifts, I think I get nervous around you a lot, that kind of stuff…”

So it was more than just a bro-thing! It is more than just a bro-thing! It has always been more than just a bro-thing!

"Oh," Yixing then goes on to explain why he's not completely stupid. "I was just… hesitant, because you're really nice and act so with everyone else. And I’m not like that so I don’t know how it works. And, speaking of… did you have any idea about me? Liking you."

Junmyeon looks up and they finally meet eyes for the first time as in-consensus-that-they-like-each-other. "You know how I say you're a very interesting person?"

"Yeah."

"That also means very hard to read."

"Oh." Yixing looks back down to his lap. Then his hand. Then Junmyeon's hand.

He darts out and grabs it, lacing their fingers together. Although it’s just five of his phalanges epidermically intertwined with five of the phalanges from another being, it feels _so_ nice. Somehow, knowing that Junmyeon feels the same way he does amplifies the warm sensation. It’s like a golden fountain pouring sparkles all over him, filling him up with joy.

"I'm happy." He says and now he's smiling uncontrollably again. "Shit, I'm _really_ happy. Thanks."

Junmyeon chuckles, "Thanks for what?"

"Uh…” And then he realizes he shouldn't be thanking Junmyeon. He should be thanking Randomness. 

Thank you, Randomness. Truly.

And though sitting here with Junmyeon holding Junmyeon's hand knowing Junmyeon has feelings for him is nice, Yixing quickly goes to break the silence because he has questions.

"I– I haven't exactly… done this kind of mutual romantic attraction thing before, so I don't exactly know what, uh, happens, now…”

Junmyeon smiles, giving his hand a squeeze which in turn makes his heart squeeze. "Well, I'm no pro either. I think we just keep doing what we're doing, you know. Except it's better now, because I know you have feelings for me and you know I have feelings for you."

"Oh." That's the simplest way anyone has ever put relationships. "That sounds nice. Doesn't sound like a burden like everyone makes it seem."

"Well, in my opinion, if it’s a burden, then they don't truly like each other." Junmyeon says. "A relationship with someone you like should be easy. There's no rite of passage, or anything. It’s just being in consensus that you’re in love, which makes both of you really happy."

Yixing’s (squeezed– he’s not sure how much more of this he can take) heart flutters when he uses the big _L:_ Love.

"Okay, that’s cool. I like that. Can I, also, like," Is he being too forward? Wait, _no._ As Junmyeon said: a relationship with someone you love should be easy. So he should stop worrying. "Like, hug you? Cuddle?"

"Yes. I like affection, if you haven’t noticed."

"We have that in common. We could be friends." Yixing says as he turns so his back is against the corner of the seat. He lets go of the laughing Junmyeon's hand to wrap his arms around his torso, pulling him up close between his legs. He rests his head on his shoulder, just barely suppressing a happy coo when Junmyeon gets comfortable, nuzzling into him. It's so intimate yet the only thing he feels right now is a chaste purity. His heart clenches and twists and does all these things it shouldn't be doing and it would really suck if he had cardiac arrest right now.

"Can I–" Yixing finds himself speaking again. "Also do this." He pulls Junmyeon in tighter, then planting several kisses onto his head. Every nerve ending demands him to give Kim Junmyeon all his love and affection. Every single ounce of it. This man deserves the universe.

A half-giggling _"Mhm,"_ emits and Yixing is smiling again. He decides to bring his hand into play as he weaves his fingers through Junmyeon's hair, still giving several small kisses as tokens of his love. A reminder around every one point five seconds that Yixing loves him with a very large part of his mind and that is impressive. And perhaps he's been holding this in for awhile...

Only then, after ceasing fire and resting his chin on Junmyeon’s head, does Yixing look up at the stars.

Still just a bunch of pretty colors. But somehow, with Junmyeon in his arms letting out content sighs with slight smiles, they're so much prettier. Nowhere near as pretty as Junmyeon, but still worth his time. They mirror the scene, as separate galaxy lights bloom from exploding stars and the different colors become translucent as they consolidate, creating something nicer: prettier.

_A cool place_ is definitely an understatement. Exoplanet is a _magical_ place. Because since when does Yixing fall in love and is this happy and has a sense of completion? And for once in his life he doesn't feel like _it's okay, it's going to be over soon_ , but rather _oh my god, I never want this to end_?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright it was abt time yall 
> 
> honestly..... this might just be the only chapter where yixing doesn't suffer LOL enjoy it while it lasts >< ok I hope u enjoyed goodbye


	28. What (Not) A Way to End The Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing's perfect night takes an unexpected detour.

**NO MATTER** how much Yixing begs the universe to stop time, it does end. Unfortunately, it’s also sooner than expected.

To his utter shock, it's the _wristbands_ that interrupt Yixing-gives-Junmyeon-all-of-his-love-and-affection™. Time quickly becomes a concept again when there’s a small beep and a white flash, and how long has he been there, with his arms around this man and his hands in his hair? Because Junmyeon’s bracelet does the same, Yixing knows it’s not an accident. What could it be, though? A mission? It can’t be a mission– it’s different from what a mission looks like. 

His boyfriend _(boyfriend! Did you read that? B-o-y-f-r-i-e-n-d!)_ lets out a sigh as he sits up, stabilizing a hand against Yixing’s chest and running another through his messy hair. He looks just as dazed as Yixing feels, and it makes him happy that the affection’s effect is mutual.

However, Junmyeon just stares at him, not speaking. Even if it is nice, Yixing still needs an answer:

“Why did it beep?” He breaks eye-contact to look at the screen. There are no notifications; it’s just the usual greeting statement and time. _WELCOME, AGENT LAY. 21:50:09EXT._

“Oh–” Junmyeon quickly removes his head from the clouds. “Sorry– I guess no one had mentioned it to you… and I kind of forgot, but there’s a curfew here.”

Yixing The Post-Millennial stares at his bracelet for a very long time trying to convert it from military time to common… 9– no, 10PM. There’s a 10PM curfew. And he’s being warned at 9:50PM. Nice. (Not really).

A bout of dismay washes through him, especially sensitive on his chest that Junmyeon’s head was just on and his legs that are still around Junmyeon and his hands that have had Junmyeon's hair in them for the last who-knows-how-long. The, as of currently which has not had much retrospection, best moments of his life, were just interrupted. By the god damn _technology._

“Why?” It’s not like complaining is going to change it, but complaining will let him exhibit his discontent. “That’s completely unnecessary. Why would there be one here if there isn’t one on the ship?”

Junmyeon scoots back which enables Yixing to pull his legs up to his chest. They’re now two separate entities. “I know, I know.” He frowns. “I guess the reasoning is that because we’re given a lot more freedoms, we also have some restrictions.”

“I see how that’s fair, I guess." Yixing admits. "But I don’t like it.”

“Me neither. Especially now right now.”

“Okay.” He doesn’t see why they can’t continue cuddling, then. He opens his arms, smiling. “Then come back.”

“If we’re not in the dormitory wing by ten we will be shocked.”

Yixing’s mouth forms an ‘O’ as he thinks about relieving the pain of a month ago. The stab-like electrocution, the slow burn that would linger, the refusal to step outside of certain places, the utter fear whenever his bracelet does _anything_.

No thanks!

“I have suddenly had a change of heart.” He announces as he stands up, checking the time. _21:51:48._ He has nine minutes to avoid torture. Nine minutes to go down all those flights of stairs and hallways to get back to what he has pinpointed as The Main Cube, and then from there find the dormitory wing and be in his room safe and sound. Now that he thinks about it, the aspect of the individual room sounds a bit lacking. Lacking in the form of Kim Junmyeon. 

Kim Junmyeon chuckles at his antics, taking the lead as he heads out of the room. Yixing gives the small area one last look, because despite barely being acquainted, it’s now one of his favourite places. Definitely not topping _My Room,_ but pretty up there with the likes of _Ramyeon Place Two_ and _Namjoon’s Good-Smelling Laundry Room_ and _My Kitchen._

“Tomorrow,” Junmyeon starts conversation as he descends the stairs, meaning that Yixing will have to talk during physical exertion and try to hear over the footsteps. But the first part isn't that bad because Minseok likes to force conversation _("Hate... you... die..."_ "Could you put that in a full sentence please?") out of him during their runs. “I’ll show you the Tree of Life. It’s in this dome place. It’s like seeing a boring monument except that it has personal value, because it’s pretty much our cause.”

“Am I able to touch it?” Yixing is wondering.

“Unfortunately, no. It’s in a glass case itself, for protection purposes.” _Protection purposes_. The same reason Yixing was burned. 

“Nothing here seems to trust us.” Yixing half-jokes. Actually, no-jokes. “Funny, because we also seem to be a priority.”

“That’s what I thought, too!” Junmyeon exclaims. “I really think more capable people could’ve been picked for this job. Or, like, aliens.”

“Earlier, Chanyeol showed me how some alien species communicate with fire. If there’s that, there has to be something more useful than humans. Also, we had to be _altered_ to be good, instead of creatures that could already have those abilities. I get that this whole thing was started by humans, but considering they were smart enough to make self-improving technology, they should’ve been smart enough to pick what’s the most capable, unless they had some sort of elitist complex for humans, but usually smart people don't have irrational bias like that.”

“Yeah…” Junmyeon agrees, but the word is slightly dragged out meaning he’s about to continue. “But nonetheless I’m still glad it’s us.”

Yixing furrows his brows. “What? _Why?”_

“Because I met you.”

Now that definitely shouldn’t be making Yixing’s stomach flutter _this_ much, should it? 

“Alright, sappy Junmyeon.” He says instead of _awe, me too!_ because that is A) equally as sappy and 2) Yixing accepting that Junmyeon just may own his whole heart. It’s awesome, but also terrifying.

Junmyeon half scoffs half laughs. “Hey, we’re together now. That means I can be sappy whenever I want.” Oh dear. “And besides, didn’t you say you had changed your opinion on sappiness? At least, when it’s with _me?”_

Luckily, Yixing is behind so his blush is hidden. “Okay, fine. Yes, I actually do like it sometimes. It’s just…” The prospect of Junmyeon being like this all the time, the prospect of mutual affection now able to be shared without nervousness or hesitation; it’s just so… 

“Different. Foreign. But in a good way.”

“And that’s the excitement of relationships.” They stop at one of the flights. Yixing catches a glimpse of Junmyeon’s smile before they exit through one of the doors into a hallway.

“Okay…” It’s exciting, but also scary, uncharted territory. At least to Yixing, who has never been in a relationship before. 

“Then, me too.”

“What?”

Yixing reddens, realizing that made more sense in his head. “I’m happy I met you too…” It feels weird to be sappy– almost embarrassing. Is that how the love is shown through sappiness? That someone is willing to humiliate themselves for the sake of expressing affection?

Then, as he should have anticipated, Junmyeon breaks into a huge _“Awwwwwwe!”_ that only heats his face more. He’s happy for the dark. Junmyeon’s cooing breaks into a giggle that tapers into comfortable silence. 

This is surreal. Everything. Of course, you’re-here-to-save-the-universe is crazy, but what’s even crazier is everything that it came with. Making authentic _bonds_ with complete strangers, going on _space missions_ , witnessing _superpowers,_ using aforementioned _superpowers,_ acquiring a _crush_ , asking out that _crush_ and getting his feelings reciprocated and now being in a _relationship_. It’s all so vastly different from his life prior, and all occurring in one period of time, that it seems his reality separated on the day he walked down the rainy Seoul streets in soaked pajamas and became two different ones: Earth and space.

Even though he had literally just been looking at his home planet, it didn’t seem real. He could only see it through the telescope, as if it’s simply google-earth or something. And right here, right now, with Exoplanet’s architecture being such a beautiful harmony of high-technology and contemporary minimalism, with the hint of nature, starlight spilling in and glowing the figure of the man he loves and who loves him: it’s just hard to believe.

It’s especially hard to believe that Junmyeon is real. It’s more likely he’s an angel (Yixing isn’t religious, nor is he going to start being so despite several things he thought impossible proven true, but how else to describe him?). He has very little personality flaws, that of which including only his gullibility and over-kindness and others of the sort– something, _still,_ generally positive; absolutely zero physical flaws, hence Yixing currently not very focused on his footing but rather Junmyeon’s back, shoulders, head, legs, ass… and the most unbelievable of all: he loves _him_. _Him!_ Yixing is only smart. That’s really it. Maybe he’ll have a hot bod sometime, too, but Junmyeon doesn’t seem to care that much for looks considering they've gone this far.

However, despite this clear disparity in the overall quality of their two persons, Junmyeon still likes him. And because of how much he expresses it – that being even _before_ the confession – Yixing isn’t worried about inadequacy. He feels loved. So thanks Randomness, for making _Junmyeon_ attracted to _him_ of all people. There is obviously nothing Yixing has done to earn anything like karma to deserve this, so he is just very lucky.

He recognizes when The Main Cube is reached because Yixing feels that strange sensation again: the kind prickling someone’s skin when they know something is _off._ As he’s progressing through, making sure to not step on stray items and keep up with Junmyeon, he decides that the feeling must be a side effect of the power that stifles the objects from harming anything. It would make sense, as Yixing has noticed some side effects with his own power: he has the tendency to heal fast. He’ll get a cut, and an hour later there won’t be any trace of even a scratch. The burn from RD_06 stopped hurting after a couple days with the bandage (though only physically...). 

“Here we are.” Junmyeon says upon entering one of the four wide hallways. He takes a left into a slightly smaller one, titled NORTH, where twelve doors are lined up, six on each side. There’s always going to be that absence, won’t there? Yixing wonders if it has yet grown into something subliminal for the others. 

“M on the left, and K on the right.” He says, then pointing left to a door Yixing hadn’t seen. “And that’s the bathroom.”

“Oh, that’s convenient. I have to go.” He stops, which signals Junmyeon to stop too. Is this where they part? What does he say? Good–

“Goodnight.” Junmyeon smiles up at him, eyes and teeth glittering in the galaxy light. “I would invite you to sleep with me, but all of the dorms check if you’re in bed. So I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah…” Yixing’s lack of words is thanks to Junmyeon’s radiant smile. His beautiful self. Yixing is melting. How the hell is he supposed to be in a _relationship_ like this? He’s going to die. 

Then, after a quick silence, he apologizes. “Sorry– I-I mean, goodnight.”

Faster than he can process, Junmyeon leans forward, cupping his cheek with a hand before giving him a slight peck on the other.

“Don’t be nervous.” He says as he’s standing right there, being beautiful, his hand on his face, intent eye contact, the patch of skin on Yixing’s cheek that’s currently on fire, all smiling and loving. And this guy’s saying _don’t be nervous?!_

“That’s– that’s kind of difficult,” Yixing wonders if Junmyeon can feel how hot his face is, “when you’re, like, doing that.”

“Doing what?” 

Is he serious? Apparently so, because he even retracts his hand, now just staring up at him with innocent eyes.

“Being all… cute and handsome and loving and kind and– okay, essentially just existing.” When Existing Junmyeon is at a loss for words, Yixing takes the opportunity. “Okay, I’m peeing. Wait, no. Not right here. I’m _going_ to go pee, I mean– like– okay, _bye.”_

He immediately backs up into the bathroom door, but then realizes it’s not a push, it’s a pull, so he reddens even more as he corrects himself, slipping inside and then suffering those couple painfully slow seconds the door takes to actually shut. From the outside he hears a muffled chuckle. When footsteps sound Yixing lets himself breathe. 

_God, you’re such an idiot. Or maybe he is. Not an idiot, but bad. He’s making me an idiot._ He progresses into the dim room, confronted with a familiar scene. He leans his palms on the sink, looking up at the gigantic mirror. 

It’s definitely an upgrade from last time. 

For starters, he’s smiling. Yixing didn’t even realize he was smiling. He looks _alive_. He has overcome the perpetual exhaustion and the circles under his eyes have faded away. His face looks skinnier, but not in a bad way. In a more proportionate way. It makes something like a jawline show, and everything else – brows, lips, eyes – more prominent. And maybe it’s just because he’s in a good mood, but was he right about the toothpaste here whitening his teeth? Yixing isn’t generally one to fret over his appearance, being content as average, but now that he’s above average, it feels kind of nice, no matter how trivial. He lifts up his t-shirt, revealing a little bit of definition. He can discern a plus-sign in the middle of his torso and other indents lightly drawing across his abdomen and pectorals. He’s happy and healthy and good-looking.

And in love.

Despite the humongous amounts of oxytocin released earlier, Yixing seems to have an endless amount, because now, thinking about Junmyeon and how happy he is, that feeling comes back all over again. He finds himself glancing at the door, and then the mirror, and then, to his surprise, bursting out in an almost girlish giggle.

_I can’t believe you’ve come to this._ Yixing half-scolds half-congratulates himself, staring at his smile in the mirror. Now he gets it. Now he understands how those people in the dramas feel. The euphoria. Now he knows why it’s called ‘love-sick’, because he is suddenly acting dumb and nervous and all these things his normal disciplined self would frown upon. Maybe he has underestimated the strength of Love’s chemical influence. By _far._

What if love is the reason systematic practicality will never work amongst human society?

Yixing thinks this over among urination. What is the reason a strictly pragmatic society won’t work? Desire. It’s the desire to want things that maybe don’t work the best but make one feel the best. And there are so many different people with so many different desires, so it just messes the whole thing up even more. _Love_ is one of the front runners of desire, often its strongest subject other than its reciprocal, _Hate_. But both, nonetheless, don’t like practicality. 

It seems that the longer Yixing is here, the less and less practicality matters, and the more and more his desire strays from it. Triumphs it. It’s just so… different. Foreign.

But is it in a good way?

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Before retiring to his – private, individual, solitary, no Sehun Snores, no Mindae giggles – dormitory, Yixing follows his curiosity to the three deceased’s rooms. As he had anticipated, there aren’t any names, but rather blank plaques, like the lockers. In fact, one of them is the dorm next to his. It’s locked. The rest of them list the following: EXO, subunit, number (Yixing didn’t know he even _had_ a number, but apparently he is 10), agent name, and finally, real name. It makes him feel like a celebrity to have his name titled on an inanimate object.

As he heads back in the direction of his room, he looks through the K members out of curiosity and definitely not which-one-is-Junmyeon’s (which is the second one down, by the way– three spaces and one side from Yixing’s). However, when he reaches Baekhyun’s – or, EXO, EXO-K, 4, HYUNEE, BYUN BAEKHYUN – he hears a strange noise. That’s when he looks to the door, realizing it’s open a crack. Alike to what he and Kyungsoo had witnessed with BaekMinDae and the locker room, Yixing is curious. He steps to the side of the door, making sure to avoid creating a shadow inside the room, and leans his ear in. 

He hears… _crying?_ He can’t discern who, but there are sniffles and shaky breathing. Then, he discerns Jongdae’s voice:

_“–okay. It might be weird for a little, but you can get through it!”_ He's saying, and Yixing stays because he needs more context and that went fine last time. _“And remember that– wait. Hold on.”_

Then, there is, much more loudly: “Who’s there?”

Adrenaline bursts into Yixing’s system. He suppresses the urge to run as fast as he can as he takes a wide, silent step leftwards, then briskly proceeding towards his room. So maybe he’ll find out who’s crying (Baekhyun? It’s _his_ dorm after all) and why later. Maybe he’ll ask Kyungsoo and they can check who went into the room. Are there cameras _in_ the rooms? 

Just before his hand makes contact the door handle, however, there's a bolt of lightning. As if Zeus had decided to smite him to hell but missed. Like, _right_ in front of him. With who-knows how many volts of electricity.

Yixing’s eyes are saucers as he slowly turns to see Jongdae leaning against the wall, regarding him with pure contempt.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He asks like an angry parent. Yixing’s eyes dart from him to the door handle, and then to the spot on the floor where the electricity must have caused a glitch because there’s a red spot that’s not going away.

“Into my room. To sleep.” He answers honestly. However, it doesn’t seem that Jongdae appreciates honesty, because just as his hand reaches for the handle again, there’s another bolt.

This time, Yixing can’t hold back a yelp, jumping back from the door and fully turning around to face him. _“What_ is your deal? Why can’t I just go into my room?”

“How long were you listening for?” Jongdae seems genuinely angry, voice stern and face devoid of any mirth.

Yixing at least tries, “Listening to what?”

“Don’t play dumb.” And it doesn’t work. “How long?”

“Like, three seconds. I don’t know what you were talking about. I’m not even sure who’s in there with you.”

“Okay…” Okay as in he can go sleep now? Or Okay as in–

“You should go apologize. To Baekhyun.”

Wait, what? That has _nothing_ to do with Okay!

“Huh?” Yixing blinks, nonplussed.

“I know you’ve been a real asshole to him. Like, I get you guys exchange your fair share of insults, but actually _hurting_ him? Not just the beating but getting RF to _shock_ him? And also meddling with his relationships?” Jongdae thins his lips. “He’s having a really hard time right now, and I think he’d appreciate it if you went in and you guys patched things up.”

Yixing’s jaw drops. _This_ again.

_All_ he has been doing is getting justice, balancing things out, and Baekhyun has to take that and victimize himself?! Okay– no. Perhaps Yixing has used his suffering for his self-indulgence a bit, too. But it’s still fair! Baekhyun still deserves it! Besides, it helps chasten his character!

When Jongdae’s glare only gets sterner, Yixing realizes that he is not going to end off this perfect night perfectly by falling asleep and dreaming about Junmyeon. He is _actually_ going to have to go give a half-assed apology to somebody who doesn’t deserve it. But he should at least correct Jongdae.

“That’s very one sided.” He replies calmly. “Put impartially: we’ve both been assholes to each other. He has done things to me and I only reciprocate the pain. It’s even, so I don’t see the need to apologize. If anything, he should, because he’s the one who initiated the animosity between us. In fact, we even _had_ made up, but then he started being rude for no reason again.”

And to his civility, Jongdae rolls his eyes. _Rolls his eyes!_ “Look, it doesn’t matter who started it. You should go be the bigger person and end it, especially since he’s in a bad place right now.” 

Oh my god! He’s saying that Yixing is obligated to apologize because Baekhyun is fucking _sad?!_ Oh boo-hoo! 

“No thank you.” He politely declines. “Can I go sleep, now?”

“That wasn’t a question.”

Yixing looks at the door, and then to Jongdae, who now has a palm up. Suddenly, there’s a little flash of a vivid blue light on it.

“Go apologize,” He reiterates, “unless you want to remember what that bracelet feels like.”

That hurts more than it should.

_“Seriously?”_ Yixing’s voice is laced with vexation, but he reminds himself Jongdae doesn’t know what he went through. Jongdae’s just being an asshole. But would he be such if Yixing showed him his charred wrist? Go to the records room and show him the scene of sitting in a pool of his own blood? “What is your problem with me? Is it the game? Listen, I’m sorry if it actually meant–”

“It’s not about that.” Jongdae dismisses. “It’s about Baekhyun.”

God, Yixing doesn’t get why he’s friends with that guy. Why would _anyone_ want to be friends with that guy? “Exactly: Baekhyun. It’s none of _your_ business. It’s his. So just leave me be. It’s a real asshole move to threaten to hurt me.”

“And it’s a real asshole move to _actually_ hurt someone. Hyung, just go say you’re sorry. It’s not that hard.”

But it _is_ that hard!

Yixing doesn’t say this, though, because it’ll make him sound like a child. “Why–”

_“Go say you’re sorry.”_ Jongdae’s voice is tense. His hand is back up and Yixing flinches. 

A bout of frustration washes through him, because Yixing is once again powerless in the situation. He doesn’t doubt Jongdae has the audacity to actually hurt him. He’s just as bad as Baekhyun. Maybe this is why they’re friends. Assholes attract each other.

And to think he was in a good mood!

“Don’t be surprised when the results aren’t what you wanted.” Yixing mutters, brushing shoulders with the guy on the way to HYUNEE. Guess that _GG bro_ meant nothing to him. It’s fine. It doesn’t hurt.

Jongdae doesn’t follow, but rather watches like some guard, making sure he goes in.

Instead of ending off the perfect night perfectly with falling asleep and dreaming about Junmyeon, Yixing is sliding into the room of a crying Baekhyun.

It’s weird.

As strange as it is to see Baekhyun all school-girl nervous around Chanyeol, it has nothing on his current breakdown state. He's sitting against the wall in the center of his bed, one leg out and the other bent, his forehead on his knee and hands at his sides. All around him are several tissues, messy order contrasting against the perfectly folded sheets. Yixing takes a moment to observe the interior of the dorms. It’s very simple, with the same red wired floor, a black bed, a dresser, nightstand, and lamp. Like a very accommodating prison cell.

Upon his entrance, Baekhyun looks up. He’s an absolute mess. His hair is mussed, eyes puffy and red, and face stained with tears. There is zero trace of his usual smirk; instead a kind of despondency occupies his face. 

_“Yixing…”_ His voice sounds as if he had been smoking for eighty years prior to the word, exacerbated by the delicate way it emerges, like he’s about to break down. Yixing _really_ hopes that doesn't happen. Jongdae would pin it on him. “What– what are you doing?”

“Good question.” He doesn’t feel very comfortable proceeding in chance of being attacked or something, so he keeps his distance at the door. “I was forced to come in and apologize to you, because I have been mean and although you have too you crying apparently makes me not the more fortuitous one but the bad guy and obligates me to say I am sorry.”

“Okay, am done. Goodnight.” Yixing nods his head politely, then backing out of the room. However, upon catching a glimpse of Jongdae with a disapproving glare in the hallway, he’s right back in.

“Never mind.” He says as he shuts the door. 

He finally looks back to Baekhyun, gauging his reaction. It’s not really anything but a blank face, but when they meet eyes, he scoffs. A couple tears slip and he shakes his head, biting his lip as he wipes at his face. He folds back into himself and leans his forehead down on his knee.

Then, the weirdest thing happens: Yixing feels _remorse._

He doesn’t know whether it’s how Baekhyun has just given up, or whether it’s his face and how sad he looks, or whether it’s both, but there’s suddenly a pang of guilt in his chest. It only gets worse when he keeps staring, so he averts his eyes to the floor. 

Okay… so maybe he has been a _little_ too mean. Maybe he's gone past the point of even, maybe he's gone a _little_ too far. Because Jongdae was right in one aspect: Baekhyun hasn’t physically hurt Yixing, only emotionally– while Yixing has done both back. And maybe right now isn’t the best time to keep being heartless. All of the sudden, that doesn’t seem so satisfying anymore. 

However, it can’t be _just_ him as to why Baekhyun’s crying. So, contrary to what the last sixty days has told him, Yixing clicks the lock (because fuck you Jongdae) and approaches the bed. The crying boy doesn’t make any protests, so he gingerly climbs up on the bed, sitting at the far end just to be safe. 

_“_ Why are _you_ crying?” Is the most kind and sympathizing thing he can muster amongst the indignance of the whole situation.

Baekhyun picks his head up again, tucking his other knee under his chin as he looks Yixing up and down. He’s not sure if it’s the glare or just his teary eyes, but he feels tension radiating from the guy. This is all Jongdae’s fault.

“Why are _you_ here?” He croaks, then clearing his throat. He grabs towards something near him, and Yixing realizes the tissue box is right next to him. His one act of kindness is sliding it towards the other.

“I just told you.” He answers. “Jongdae literally forced me to come in here. So here I am. But that doesn’t answer my question. Why are you crying?”

“...You don’t care.” Baekhyun sniffs. “Why would I tell someone who doesn’t care.”

“This certainly wasn’t your mindset when we first met. But that also doesn’t answer my question.”

“Why do you want to know?”

_“That doesn’t answer my question.”_ Yixing repeats for the second time instead of _I want to at least make sure it’s not me so I don’t feel too bad._

Surprisingly, he relents pretty easily. “I asked out Chanyeol.”

Oh, Chanyeol rejected him! Great!

Well– not _great,_ but it’s good that A) Baekhyun's not crying because of him and B) Kyungsoo can now make his move, because Yixing is #TeamChansoo. But what’s not good is how at this, Baekhyun breaks into another sob, back shaking as he struggles to control his breathing.

“And then he rejected you.” Yixing almost wants to rub it in his face that he literally was just doing the same thing earlier and _wasn’t_ rejected. But then he mentally slaps himself because that’s so mean!

Wait, _that’s so mean?_ Who is he, Junmyeon?

He struggles to get his newly established boyfriend out of his head. But perhaps, Yixing realizes, he could actually put this to use. This is a situation Junmyeon would excel in: the comforting of someone else. He’s not Junmyeon, of course, but maybe he should pretend to be. Or, at least, adopt some of his mannerisms. 

Junmyeon would do something like rub Baekhyun’s back, soothing him with how he’s sorry that happened and that he’s going to be there for him if he needs anything.

Only one of these things happens.

“I am sorry.” Yixing says, thinking about the statement. Maybe he should be. If the same outcome had happened to him, Yixing would be feeling _horrible_ right now. He would definitely be crying. He would probably feel so embarrassed, because now he has to continue life with that person and it would be very awkward because of the one-sided love and he would have to force himself to get over those feelings. Maybe he should say this out loud.

“I guess…” He begins, and Baekhyun looks up. He didn’t expect himself to be continuing either. “That really _does_ suck. I mean, not only are you embarrassed, but you also have to live with that embarrassment every time you see him. And that’s every day, several times throughout the day.”

“Jesus,” Baekhyun scoffs. “Thanks for rubbing it in.”

Yixing narrows his eyes. _“No,_ I’m not rubbing it in. I’m sympathizing. I’m showing that I _know_ how you feel, and not just giving you some _‘oh my gosh, I’m here for you whenever, stay strong’_. You can get that from everyone else.”

At this, he has nothing to argue. Baekhyun seems to consider this, biting his lip as he stares at the bed sheet. Apparently, he decides this deems Yixing worthy of more detail, because he sits up, signaling further conversation. It's a bit weird, the awkward tension of _this is not normal maybe I should insult him for normalization purposes_ lingering in the air.

“I really liked him…” He says. “Well, not _liked_. _Like._ And not just one way either– I mean, I usually like people just sexually… but I like Chanyeol romantically. And sexually. But also _romantically.”_

“...Does that not happen often?” Yixing definitely remembers having been sexually attracted to several people, but not so much romantic.

“I mean, genuinely, y-yeah.” Baekhyun’s tears have stopped, now just a delicate voice. For some reason it's a huge relief. “And, not to like, suck my own dick, but… usually when I like someone, I can get with them. Not that I’m a player, or anything… they just– just usually like me back.”

“Since when–“ Yixing retracts his statement of _since when are you this humble?_ Of course he’s chastened, he just got rejected! “Never mind. But are you very surprised? I’m not surprised he rejected you.”

“What?” Baekhyun says as if Yixing had just said _god bless America_ out of the blue. “What do you mean?”

“In my opinion, you’re not very compatible. You’re very outgoing and, um, obnoxious, all offense meant. And he’s more shy and geeky.” Like Kyungsoo, hence #TeamChansoo. “And opposites don’t really attract unless it’s science. And this is coming from me, who doesn’t know you guys as well but still sees that.”

Now Baekhyun’s crying again. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that?

“I hate–“ He sniffs. Yixing knows the next word coming. “I hate that you’re _right…_ " Or maybe he doesn't. "But I just thought… I don’t know…”

“That if you’re here, doing impossible things like _saving the universe,_ then you can do other impossible things like a relationship.” He depersonalizes this and adds, “–With someone not that compatible with you?”

“Y-yeah. Exactly, actually…” He blows his nose into another tissue, tossing it to the side. 

“I hate emotions. They get in the way of _everything._ ” Baekhyun suddenly says and it sounds awfully similar to something Yixing would think. “I just… sometimes, I wish the world ran without them. That everything was like, an organized system. Like those dystopian movies you see when no one feels love and everyone is happy, but then that one S-J-W protagonist has to go and ruin it all.”

Oh, wow. 

Maybe him and Baekhyun have more in common than he thought. Suddenly, Yixing dislikes him less. Purely from that statement. 

“I sometimes wish that too.” Yixing agrees. “However, it’s impossible. One, there are too many S-J-W protagonists. And two, you can’t just ignore emotion. Because–” He’s not going to say _a wise man once said,_ but a wise man once said, “’–feelings affect everything, so you just have to deal with it'" (Junmyeon, 237). "Even if it’s a major imposition."

“Okay, fine, then love. We can live without that one.”

Yixing _without_ that feeling he gets with Junmyeon? 

“But love is most often the cause for reproduction and therefore a thriving species populous and therefore we don’t go extinct.” He remembers literally countering this point a while ago, but he’s in a different argument, now.

Luckily, Baekhyun doesn’t point out that the cavemen didn’t care who they boned. Instead, he pouts, wiping at his face.

“Shut the fuck up. Stop being right.”

“Okay.” Yixing watches Baekhyun’s at first confused face go through a series of expressions, and then he ends up talking again.

“God, Yixing, it was so embarrassing. I didn’t… it wasn’t even because he’s straight. He’s not. He’s bi. It was _just_ because he doesn’t like me. And… and him and Kyungsoo are probably going to be together now, and they’re going to be happy together… fucking nerds, in love, _ugh…_ and I can’t even blame Kyungsoo, because he did nothing. He’s just better than me.” Just because Chanyeol doesn’t like Baekhyun doesn’t mean he likes Kyungsoo. Maybe Yixing should point this out. “And– and so I’m going to be even more jealous…” 

_“Even more_ jealous?" He completely forgets that doing something that would probably help. He would’ve _never_ imagined Baekhyun being jealous of someone like Kyungsoo– unless he was dating Chanyeol, of course.

“Oh.” Baekhyun looks down, cheeks reddening. “I guess I’ve… always been a little jealous of him. He’s smart, he uses all these words I don’t know. He’s handsome, but not in the like, traditional way. And he’s so confident. Like, I would never shave my head. _And_ he still looks good bald. And I know he’s always had more of a chance with Chanyeol… it just– it just _hurts.”_

Yixing’s brows raise in surprise, but he quickly neutralizes his expression. He _never_ would have suspected Baekhyun to be like this. He hides it so well. However, although Yixing's never going to look at him the same again, it also humanizes Baekhyun. Yixing had genuinely thought he was a psycho at one point, but now he mostly makes sense, now that he’s explaining it. And he is surprisingly far more relatable than he had thought. 

Because of this, Yixing decides Baekhyun won’t hurt him. He gets up slightly, readjusting himself against the wall next to the sobbing boy. The gesture is all he needed, apparently, because Baekhyun’s head then lolls onto his right shoulder. Almost immediately Yixing feels wetness seep through his tee, but at least it isn’t freezing cold water.

“Sorry– if, if this is weird for you, Hyung…” Baekhyun’s hands wrap around his arm like it’s a lifeline. “I just… need comfort. Even if it’s you. You…” He begins to cry again, “It’s fine, right? You– you won’t tell anyone, right?”

Yixing is offended and flattered and shocked and confused all at once, hence a moment before his answer comes.

“…Right. It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone.” A couple seconds of thought and Yixing realizes just how deeply he understands what Baekhyun’s feeling right now. The weakness, the need for comfort, the guilt of receiving such, the fear of what comes next after revealing such a pathetic state– it’s how he was not too long ago, crying to Junmyeon. 

Baekhyun and Yixing really are more similar than he had thought.

“I’m not all that, Yixing.” Baekhyun repositions his cheek on his shoulder. “I’m just pretending… I’m– I’m a mess, man. I’m so stressed, and embarrassed, and jealous, and horny, and sad… I don’t know– okay, clearly confused too. And horny. It’s just… _a lot._ You know, right?”

“I know.” Yixing says and he really means it. “But you’ll get over it. I don’t mean that in a condescending way– I mean it literally: you will get over it. It’ll get better. It'll stop.”

“But I’m _always_ horny.”

“No– I mean, the bad stuff.”

“Being horny all the time isn’t a good–“

“You know what? Just never mind that, then.” 

Like a reprimanded child, Baekhyun silences for a little bit. But only a little bit.

“...Yixing-hyung?” He asks in a small voice.

_“What?”_ Yixing didn’t mean for it to come out brusque but it does. 

“I’m sorry for being such a bitch.” More than sixty days late Baekhyun apologizes. “Like, for real. You were really going through it, all new and stuff. And I just made it harder– I probably still do. I…”

“Why?” Yixing gently asks after he trails off. “Why are you so mean to me? I know I’ve done stuff back but… just, why?”

Contrary to his anticipation (again), Baekhyun doesn’t get offended. Instead, he is completely up-front about it. “Well… I don’t know. I tease people a lot, as you know, and I guess you never really responded, so I just tried harder… I don’t know. You– you’re really, like, emotionless. I guess I’m kind of jealous of that, and, and I kind of wanted to see your breaking point. And you being mean back just gave me the excuse… _Fuck,_ that sounds so mean, now that I’m… I’m sorry. I don’t want to keep pretending I hate you, cause I don’t. So can you just say you’re sorry too and then we’re back to friends?”

This sounds like a fair deal. Given that Baekhyun will keep it, of course. But this time Yixing has a feeling it will last. 

“Okay. I’m sorry too, for punching you in the face and kicking you in the balls and putting you under a table for an hour and others of the sort.” He suddenly doesn’t feel as tense with Baekhyun on him. Maybe _friends_ is a little bit of a stretch, but Yixing definitely doesn’t want to keep up this hating thing. 

_“Awe,_ that’s too sweet of you.” Lithe fingers tickle under his chin. “Thank you~”

He has a hunch that the teasing will never stop, though.

“Just–“ Yixing grabs his hand off, dropping it onto the bed. “Please don’t do that thing where you say really hurtful stuff but in the form of a joke as if invalidating me. I don’t like that. It’s like me going out into the hall and announcing to everyone, _'_ _hi, I’m Baekhyun. I have an inferiority complex so I take out my jealous rage on everyone in the form of passive aggression,'_ and then turn to you and say, ' _chill, just kidding. Don’t be so sensitive, drama-queen.'"_

“Oh.” Baekhyun sounds a bit hurt. “Are you… talking about the _mission?”_

“That is exactly what I’m talking about. That hurt. I almost cried. Don’t do that.”

Baekhyun’s face falls. _“Shit,_ I'm sorry. Yeah, that was _really_ rude, now that you put it that way. And wait– you _cry?”_

At this, Yixing furrows his brows, looking at Baekhyun, and then at the several tear-stained tissues all over the bed, and then back at Baekhyun.

“Okay– I didn’t it mean it like _that,”_ A dry chuckle. “I mean, _you_ cry? Like, you seem pretty emotionless, to me.”

“And you seem pretty confident, but here we are.” At this, Yixing earns a light punch in the arm. _“Ouch,_ but yes. I do cry.”

“Like, outside of Minseok’s training?”

“Outside of Minseok’s training.” He confirms.

For some reason, this seems like a revolutionary idea to Baekhyun. His eyes widen slightly as he looks to nowhere in particular, lips parting slightly. It makes Yixing laugh, wondering what everyone else’s reaction would be. Why hadn’t Junmyeon seemed surprised the night he broke down in front of him? Or was he just too distracted to see?

“Yixing-hyung?”

“You don’t have to say my name, I’m literally right–“

“Fine.” Baekhyun’s voice regains its usual sass and Yixing feels oddly rewarded. “But… thank you. Like, this kind of actually really helped.”

“Which one?” Yixing specifies. 

Baekhyun blinks. “Huh?”

_“Kind of, actually,_ or _really_ helped?”

“Oh.” He laughs. _“Really._ For real _.”_

“Wait– _really,_ or _for real?”_

At Yixing’s impish smile, Baekhyun punches him again. Yixing then feels the weight come off of his shoulder, and he guesses now he’s basically done. Is Baekhyun going to ask him to help him clean up? That really seems more of a him (t)issue. Also, does he just go? Say _night, homie?_ Or–

Suddenly, he’s kissed.

_Kissed!?_

One moment, Yixing is preparing to get up, and the next, there is something tender on his lips. The moment lasts five long seconds, in which: (one), Yixing blinks confusedly, feeling something strange, (two), Yixing’s eyes widen, realizing what is happening, and (three), Yixing’s breath hitches, and his neurotransmitters get to it before he does: adrenaline along with something pleasurable flood his system so fast it’s scary. The last two seconds is Baekhyun pushing in and pulling away, tugging his bottom lip slightly.

And What The Fuck?!

Yixing can’t control a slight gasp as he leans back into the wall, eyes huge. Whatever pleasure that had come is quickly washed out by the shock, because _this_ was just his first kiss!

Besides an incident at a twelfth birthday party, Zhang Yixing has never locked lips with another human. Although Namjoon has always made fun of him for it, enjoying calling him the _virgin of all virgins,_ which he especially liked to do when his mother was right in the other room, he never cared. He knew it would either never come or come in a situation where he’d probably be either A) initiating it with someone he likes, B) someone he likes initiating it with him, or C) very scared and getting out of the situation ASAP. He knew he’d suck at it, and probably would be made fun of, but if he were in situation either A or B his partner would be fine with it and he wouldn’t be kissing back in C. But other than that, Yixing hasn’t given the topic very much thought.

Until a certain someone.

Someone who’s certainly _not_ Baekhyun!

“Oh, shit,” Baekhyun slowly sits back onto his heels, biting his lip. That had just kissed Yixing. “I read that wrong, didn’t I?”

Hot. It’s so hot in here. Yixing’s face is on fire. He looks to Byun Baekhyun, his first kiss who’s not Kim Junmyeon. He’s not complaining because Baekhyun’s not a good kisser, but because he doesn’t _like_ Baekhyun in that way! He likes _Junmyeon_ in that way! He wants to do that with Junmyeon!

Fuck, does this constitute as cheating?! And it’s been what, a half hour?!

_“Yeah…”_ His voice emerges meek, looking to the bed. This is so awkward. _No, Yixing. This isn’t cheating. It’s not you willingly and knowingly doing stuff with him. Even if it felt… so how will_ Junmyeon’s _lips feel?_ In logical terms, if kissing Baekhyun, who he only has maybe a small-bit-of-sexual-attraction-to-because-Baekhyun-is-undeniably-hot™ felt good, how will kissing Junmyeon, who not only appeals to his cock, but also is heart, feel?

“Shit, sorry, man.” Baekhyun is looking down too. Yixing’s lips feel electrified, as if all the nerves on them are currently screaming _we are here, we are here!_ “I like, read that as the two enemies finally make up and then make out, kind of thing...”

Yixing lets out a small, “Oh,” as he lets the shock wash out. How stupid of Baekhyun. The situation is kind of funny, but he can’t bring himself to laugh, much less look at the other. 

“If it makes you feel any better,” Baekhyun continues, “I have kissed pretty much all my friends. And like half the people here. And countless strangers.”

No, this absolutely doesn’t! 

“Wait, you don’t like,” Yixing is sure a short kiss like that won’t do anything, but he asks anyway, “have any STIs, right?”

Baekhyun laughs sweetly, as if watching a child do something funny. “Oh, god no. Yixing, calm, it was just– wait, oh my god… was that your _first kiss?”_

“No–“

“Oh my gosh!” He squeals. Now he’s back to normal besides the red eyes. _“Dude…_ and what are you, _nineteen?_ I have never met a bigger virgin before! Okay, but you should be honored that your first kiss is me. I’m a _great_ kisser. It’s all downhill from here.” 

Yixing’s face contorts in indignance. “I literally just said you are _not_ my first kiss.” He glares, but he’s glad this is taken so lightly. That it’s just Baekhyun being dumb and he has nothing to worry about. It means nothing except that Yixing is now going to have the concept of kissing and kissing Junmyeon on his mind all the time.

Baekhyun snorts, clearly not believing him. “Fine, I’ll humor you. I’m the best kiss you’ve ever had. Out of _all_ your kisses. Which is more than one. Because this isn’t your first kiss.”

“You’re _terrible_ at humoring people.” Yixing scoffs, getting up. He really should have left two minutes ago. “I’m leaving. Bye.”

“Awe, goodnight! My sweet virgin!” At the door, he turns to see Baekhyun waving, his usual puppy-dog smile on his face.

As much as it pains Yixing to admit this: at least he’s leaving with Baekhyun smiling, not crying. Maybe being forced in here to talk to him isn’t so bad, after all. They did patch things up, and Yixing learned that Baekhyun had his reasons for being so unbearable, and that him and Baekhyun are actually quite similar people, and that maybe they’ll finally be friends. Maybe Baekhyun’s not so bad. Maybe–

“Fuck you.” He says before slamming the door. 

Thankfully, Jongdae is not still in the hallway (although he and Baekhyun have patched things up, he and Jongdae have most definitely not), so Yixing allows himself to take a deep breath, staring at the wall and trying to process everything that has just happened within the past hour:

1) Yixing has confessed feelings for Somebody.

2) The Somebody has mutual feelings and now Yixing is in his First Relationship.

3) A Person who is not Somebody kissed Yixing so he technically cheated not even an hour into his First Relationship. 

There are merely three items yet it’s more action than he has had the last nineteen years. And this list of things he has never done doesn’t even include the other sixty-plus days. It’s like he’s the main character in a story because so many crazy things are happening to him. He doubts he’ll have Character Development though. That’s for the weak-minded and obviously flawed.

Once he enters his dorm, he quickly swaps his outfit for sleepwear, removing his shoes and switching out the socks for clean ones, because Zhang Yixing indeed sleeps with socks on (reasoning: his feet feel unsafe and cold without socks and no blanket or sheet solves that).

“I’m not going to talk to you, because that’s pointless…” He says as he removes the golden sheep from his pocket, placing it on the nightstand. The poor little guy has been squished against his thigh for the past ten plus hours because he had wanted to bring it to Exoplanet. Not because he has an emotional attachment or anything, he just felt it very necessary. Climbing up onto the bed, he reaches over to what he thinks is the light, successfully darkening the room. Now, the trinket in front of him is barely visible.

“But… you saw all that too, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aha did you guys see that pun aha issue but (t)issue cause there were tissues aha get it aha (if u haven't figured out by now skip author's notes for optimal experience)
> 
> I am guessing no one saw this coming dw I didn't either
> 
> imagine this is the biggest plot twist of the story–––– tbh it actually might be LMAO
> 
> buttttt if youre feeling like commentinggg~ how does this change your view of baekhyun? still hate him? do u think it'll revert to the same hating-each other again? or they gon be bros for life now?
> 
> ok have a nice week <3


	29. The Tree of Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing finally meets the one thing he's been working (suffering) for.

**YIXING WAS RIGHT.** It doesn’t affect him all that much.

Other than Baekhyun’s new nickname, _My sweet virgin,_ which he sure loves to use in the presence of others, and the burning inquiry of what kissing Junmyeon will be like because they're in a relationship therefore it is inevitable, Yixing is fine. Perhaps Baekhyun is not fine, such as when Yixing pulls his hair at the breakfast table subsequent to _“Speaking of Virgin Mary, Virgin Yixing also–“,_ but Yixing is not Baekhyun so he is okay. (BaekXing is currently back to status: Baekhyun makes Yixing’s life harder, except now the teasing isn’t with malicious intent and nobody goes too far).

After said breakfast, which is eaten together on Exoplanet, everybody leaves for their respective activities. Everybody except Yixing, because Yixing does not have a respective thing he’s doing unless there is a schedule he is missing out on but there shouldn't be because Kyungsoo said Exoplanet visits are basically free time. He doesn't exactly know where to go, either. The tour from Kyungsoo and Chanyeol had really ended up being so-this-is-how-you-stalk-people, though he’s not even sure he remembers how to get to that room.

So exploring it is.

Exoplanet has proven to be a _pretty cool_ place so far, so Yixing infers he will find interest wherever he goes and that he will probably not run into something he’s ‘not supposed to’ because that not only happened in another location, somewhere that didn't have the liberating windows and cool red floor lines, but it was also something he was warned for. He has heeded warnings ever since then. 

He will first head to The Main Cube, Yixing decides as he’s putting his dish on the cart (that only holds four others because half the members decided whatever they were doing was too urgent for the five steps to put the silverware away). The stuff there was interesting, and, if possible, he wants to learn about the safety aura. If he can remember the directions to the records place, he’ll go there too. He’d like to see if he can access what people on Earth are currently doing; if the room actually holds ‘everything that has ever happened’. His mother should be missing him by now, but Yixing can never be sure. Namjoon is probably devastated, along with Cat. Hopefully they’re getting together and talking it out (Namjoon and Cat, not Namjoon and his mother). 

Unless… was he forgotten?

Not as in everyone forgot him, but rather he was never born. He had never existed. It would make a far easier process of kidnapping if all traces of him were just erased from the Earth, including his past. But it’s impossible, and although impossibility isn’t such the restraint anymore, he can’t conceive any possible explanation for that... _Oh!_ Right– plus, when he first had gotten here, Minseok mentioned the police looking for them. Never mind. Delete this paragraph. 

As Yixing’s thinking, he loses awareness and doesn’t hear footsteps approaching. So, when there is suddenly human contact, he startles.

From behind, Junmyeon freezes, waiting a couple seconds before continuing his hands on his waist, wrapping his arms around him fully and he pressing up to Yixing in a sweet back-hug.

“Hi.” He greets, chin resting on his shoulder. Yixing’s stomach explodes with butterflies and he’s smiling before he even realizes it.

“Hi.”

The embrace lasts a moment longer before Junmyeon lets go, then stepping around him to face him. “What’cha doing?”

Yixing takes a moment to stare as if that's not what he had been doing all breakfast. Junmyeon's so pretty. “Going to that cube place. And then maybe that records place if I can find it. I want to check out the stuff in the cube and get some information from the records.”

“That’s cool,” He says, but then there's, “but do you mind if I take you for right now? I wanted to show you the Tree of Life, so I cancelled your schedule for today.”

“Wait,” Did he just hear that right? _Cancelled his_ _schedule?_ “Cancelled my schedule? What do you mean?” He asks as if he knew and cared that he had one in the first place.

“Well– you were supposed to be training with Minseokie, but not anymore... I can do that, cancel schedules, to a certain extent. It’s one of the perks of being the leader.” 

“So… I could have never done training with that c– with Minseok– in the first place, is what you’re saying?” And Junmyeon has gone this whole time without mentioning it? The betrayal!

“No, not quite.” He chuckles. “I don’t control what everyone does. I am only allowed to see what it is and request to move things or cancel them, but they're only occasionally granted. RF does all that, scheduling, and there’s like, certain required hours of a certain activity.”

“Okay.” Yixing now feels less betrayed because Junmyeon can’t really do that much anyway. “I’ll keep that in mind so I can guilt you into giving me more free time.”

 _“No,”_ Junmyeon laughs, although Yixing isn’t really joking. “You wouldn’t do that…”

This doesn’t stand long.

“...Okay, maybe you would. Please don’t do that. You know I can’t say no to you.”

Yixing grins. “That’s _precisely_ why I will. And yes, Tree of Life. Let’s go.” This prompts them into a walk. He matches his step with Junmyeon’s just so he doesn’t have to hear four feet when he can hear only two. 

“I see you and Baekhyun made up?” Junmyeon changes the topic.

“Oh, yeah.” _And a bit more, but let’s not mention that._ “Basically, I was about to go to sleep and then I heard someone crying and so I eavesdropped and was then caught by Jongdae who threatened me into confronting Baekhyun in the midst of a mental breakdown because Chanyeol rejected him and so I was like 'there for him' and whatever and we ended up fixing our problems as well.”

“Ah.” He nods, though his face quickly contorts into confusion. “Wait, _Chanyeol rejected him?_ What do you mean?”

Yixing’s eyes widen slightly. Was he not supposed to mention that? Oh well, it’s Junmyeon. There is absolutely zero harm in telling Junmyeon stuff. “Baekhyun asked out Chanyeol and got rejected.”

“Baekhyun has feelings for Chanyeol?”

“Yeah…” Yixing would’ve expected Junmyeon to know a lot of things, considering how trustworthy of a person he is. Is this the first time Yixing knows something social-related that someone else here doesn’t? “You didn’t know that?”

“No.” Junmyeon shakes his head. “The only feelings I know is Jongdae and Minseok. And, well, you and me, of course. But Baekhyun and Chanyeol…?”

“Yeah. And also Baekhyun and Minseok a couple years ago, apparently.” And Kyungsoo’s infatuation with Chanyeol, but Yixing doesn’t say this.

“Wait, _what?_ You’re kidding, right?” 

“No.” He can’t help but laugh at his reaction, the big-eyed look of oblivion.

“Wow, Junmyeonnie, look at me! I am fitting in. I am in the _inner circle._ Are you proud?”

“No.” Junmyeon half-scoffs half-laughs. He shakes his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t know all this. And I’ve been here _forever.”_

That is true. It's a moment of thought and Yixing comes up with an explanation, “Probably because, although you’re a very good source for comfort, you’re also too ethical and usually drama revolves around people doing the wrong thing and it’s discouraging to hear something like ‘well, just be honest’.”

“Hmm… okay, that sounds about right.”

“I know.” Yixing beams. There's a bit of silence before he decides right now he prefers Junmyeon talking so he asks, “Also, since you’ve been here forever, and I was thinking about this earlier, can you still fathom the idea of returning? To Earth, to your life?”

“Ah…” Yixing glances to see him looking down in thought. 

“Honestly, I can imagine it and stuff... but it's only like a dream. Like when I think about my childhood. Something nice to reminisce but impossible to go back to.”

“I understand.” He genuinely does, because in space it’s so different that it basically feels like a separate lifetime, only started in a different position. “I feel like that too, but on a smaller scale. So how about this: imagine we returned today, us all. What would you do? Like, aside the being questioned by the police and probably news and friends and family. Aside things that relate to the impact of the return.”

Junmyeon stares at him for a couple seconds as if he hadn't heard the question. “Gosh, Xing, you’re making me think…" He says with a smile, "Well, I think I would try to get in contact with you all. I mean, I would be _back_ , so I would have to continue on with my life, just after a very large hiatus, but that very large hiatus included people I want to have in my life on Earth, too. It’s weird to imagine, though…”

“I would still bring rice cakes and greet your mom, but now I’d say I’m the boy _friend_ from the spaceship.”

Junmyeon laughs, “She’d like that. But first I’d have to explain the whole relationship with another male thing– not that she’s against it, just not expecting it. I've only dated girls before." So Yixing made him gay? Nice. (Or maybe he has been bisexual and just never happened to meet the right male this whole time but Yixing will scrap whatever compliments he can get). "She’d understand though. Dad too. Sisters too. Cats too. Goldfish too, if he’s not dead by now.”

“That’s a lot of acceptance.” Yixing thinks to his _one_ mother and imagines the look on her face when he tells her he has romantic involvement with a male. He’s not sure whether it’ll be _get out of my house_ or _at least it’s_ somebody _,_ but he knows she has a bit of a stigma against homosexuality. 

“Would your mother be fine?”

“That’s a good question.” He answers with a shrug. “Eventually, yes. But initially, I am not sure. She is not exclusively homophobic or anything, but she has strong traditional values. That is also why we don’t get along, because I generally don’t like traditional things because they’re often dumb.”

“I wonder what it’s like spending a night in the Zhang household.” 

“Sometimes I spend my nights elsewhere.” Yixing then goes to proudly say, “Actually, fun fact: I am still technically kicked out of my house.”

Junmyeon’s jaw drops. “Really? I’m sorry…”

“No, don't be,” He laughs. “It’s funny. Especially whenever my mom has realized I went missing, and that regret she’ll feel. It’s like in the movies! Where the two characters end off on a bad foot just before one dies! Not that I’m dead, but I guess I am to Earth.”

“I can’t imagine being kicked out of my house. By my own _mother,_ too. That must be horrible.”

It’s not really, as Namjoon’s house is equally as comfortable, but Yixing gets where he’s coming from. The whole having-a-parent-who-doesn’t-like-you thing.

Though the real problem with Yixing’s mother is the ironically unfortunate result of wanting so badly _to_ _like_ him.

It’s the after effect of being screwed over by Whatever Had Happened with Yixing’s father in China to the point where her life didn’t have a point. Moving to South Korea with merely zero friends, a low-wage pottery job, and one son didn't give much leeway for a Meaning of Life. As a product of this, little Zhang Jiashuai is what Zhang Jiaxun wanted to make the Meaning of Life. This meant desperation for the poor subject to grow to be a valiant young man, going to one of the top universities and doing good and having impact on the world and making his mother so, so proud. She was so dead-set on this course for her son that she even went to the extent of changing his name to something more pronounceable to the Korean demographic. For Ms Zhang, it had been going uphill until about sixth grade when little Yixing took a dead bird out of his pocket in the middle of the restaurant and that snapped the last straw of the bond with her friendship group of other mothers that had already been deteriorating constantly by said son’s abnormalities and her tendency to be a suck-up. This was the end of attempts to find pride in her sonand the beginning of their strained relationship. Where Yixing ditched trying to tolerate her was when she insisted he get tested for autism so they’d receive benefits.

But it's fine. Yixing doesn't care to be liked by narcissists who treat people poorly just because they've had a shit life themselves.

“And I can’t imagine being rich and having siblings." Yixing replies because he has already explained all the former to Junmyeon before. "Perhaps we’ll learn from each other. Like, really. I have never had a rich friend.”

 _“Wealthy.”_ Junmyeon corrects.

“I have never had a rich _and_ humble friend… or boyfriend. Or a rich and humble boyfriend.”

Junmyeon looks to him, as if to see if he’s joking, before sighing and shaking his head with a smile. It's cute when he does that.

“Also,” Yixing continues, "speaking of rich and rich people like you," – perhaps he slips this in just for that same reaction – "maybe I could also make some money if I wrote a book, because all of this is really good material for a sci-fi story. And considering my name would be in the media because of how I went missing, it would not be as hard to get my book out there and then profit.”

“That’s... a weirdly good idea. You write?”

“No. That’s the problem.”

“Oh. Well, you’re smart. I bet you’d be good at it.” Bold of Junmyeon to assume all smart people can write, or, even worse, that all writers are smart! “You’d also be good at college.”

Oh. _This,_ again. 

“You’re my boyfriend,” It’s weird to say this out loud, “not my mother.”

“I know, I know. I just don’t–“

“Oh!” Yixing points afar, thanking Randomness for the good timing. “Is that it? The Tree?”

Fortunately, Junmyeon gets totally distracted, gaze following his hand and eyes lighting up. “Yeah!”

They enter something much similar in size to The Main Cube. It’s a vast open area, but, unlike TMC, it isn’t cluttered with things. In fact, it’s almost empty but for a couple anti-gravity benches and the large dome in the middle. Upon entrance, Yixing can see the silhouette of a wide trunk and thick branches. The light from above casts a large shadow, making it seem gargantuan.

Yixing ditches his boyfriend to speed up to the dome, putting his hands on the glass with almost childlike wonder. In contrast to his initial glimpse, the Tree of Life, despite the grand title, is rather small. The trunk is thick, perhaps the width of one of the benches, but it’s short. He estimates, if he were allowed inside the dome, that his head would touch most of the hanging leaves. The branches are a willow style, much like the picture RF had shown, but the whole tree itself isn’t very droopy; rather a few stray branches giving it the weeping effect. The only thing that differentiates this universe-running sacrosanct from literally any other plant on Earth is the maroon leaves and aura of light they emit, giving the tree an enchanted glow.

“Lame, isn’t it?” All of the sudden there's a voice right next to him that's _not_ Junmyeon.

 _“Jesus!”_ Yixing jumps, whipping around to see an impish smile on Kyungsoo’s face. But Yixing doesn't hit him because most of the time Kyungsoo hits twice as hard back.

“I think it’s special,” Junmyeon is now at the other side of him, looking in at the tree. “It’s like, the child we have to nurture.”

Both Yixing and Kyungsoo cringe, but only the latter expresses it with an eye-roll and, “Children are annoying. At least the Tree is quiet. Anyway, what are _you guys_ doing here?”

“What are _you_ doing here?” Yixing responds to his pointedness with just as much pointedness back. 

“I asked first.”

“I’m showing Yixing the Tree.” Junmyeon cuts the intense staring. “I thought he should see it since, well, everyone else has. Why are you here?”

Despite them answering, Kyungsoo only gives a suspicious shrug and says, “Secret.”

Yixing frowns. “But we just told–“

“Also, you guys are _very_ loud.” Kyungsoo goes on as if Yixing hadn't said anything. “I could hear your conversation for almost a minute before you actually got here. Everything said.”

Oh.

Does that mean Kyungsoo knows about them, then? Yixing had said the word _boyfriend_ at least thrice. Kyungsoo is smart, he can put two and two together. Is it okay for him to know? Yixing looks to Junmyeon, but he isn’t of much help because he’s only giving that same wide-eyed flustered look back.

Perhaps they should’ve talked about this.

“I can’t believe you’re kicked out of your house, Yixing-hyung.” Okay, if he heard from there, that means he probably knows. Especially considering the way he’s staring; eyes boring holes into Yixing as he says with far too much emphasis to be single intentioned, _“I wouldn’t have expected that.”_

Okay, he definitely knows.

“You’d be surprised.” Yixing escapes the innuendo by trailing along the side of the dome, suddenly very interested in the roots of the Tree. The ground – and the Tree itself – is the only authentic nature he has seen since he got here. There is actual grass, dirt, he can see the roots sinking into the soil, and–

Wait, what’s that?

A bright yellow thing shatters the organic scene. Yixing bends down to get a better look at whatever it is. Amongst the interweaving roots, there is one that’s very bright, starting tucked under a root and ending in the ground. It looks almost like a cord.

“Hey, Kyungsoo. What’s this?”

“What?” He hears footsteps nearing. 

“That.” Yixing points. He hears Junmyeon approach as well. 

Kyungsoo is then bent down to his level, squinting into the dome. “Sorry, I don’t have my glasses…” He mutters although Yixing has never seen him with glasses, “I… don’t know.”

Junmyeon is now on his other side, observing. “It looks like a wire.”

“Why is there a wire in the Tree of Life?” Yixing looks to Kyungsoo. “I thought it was all natural.”

All of the sudden, Kyungsoo looks as he had during that brief moment in the progress meeting: _very_ put off. He presses his forehead to the glass, staring harder as if that’ll get him the answer. He mumbles something, slowly pulling back. “Well, that’s not what I was told, but…” The way he says it is almost worrying, because he sounds genuinely stumped. Yixing wonders if there’s more, if the way he dragged off the sentence is the hesitance of another detail. Is there something wrong? 

Suddenly, there’s a fourth voice.

“That is what you were told, Agent D.O.” A feminine voice startles everyone. Junmyeon ends up jumping into Yixing’s arms who at the same time jumps into Kyungsoo’s arms who at the same time isn’t very sturdy and ends up falling backwards so they’re all down in a groan-filled pile.

The three disentangle upon RF’s presence, Kyungsoo giving a spiteful shove to poor Yixing who then almost falls again if it weren’t for Junmyeon catching him. Rarely does Yixing ever see the robot, and every time he does he is intimidated by the size of her, but not absolutely shocked like Kyungsoo and Junmyeon look right now.

“Did I scare you?” RF asks. “Well, actually, I know I did. All of your heart rates are currently increased by an average of four BPM. That was a rhetorical question.”

“Why are _you_ here?” Kyungsoo asks in the same manner he had asked him and Junmyeon. He’s squinting at her in the same way he had been the wire.

“I had mentioned I would come on, did I not? I am not wearing my sombrero because I didn’t have the time to make it nor did I bother to stop time.” Yixing is still _dying_ to know how that works. 

“Cool.” Yixing then points to the wire. “What’s that?”

“That is a root.”

Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “It looks more like a wire to me.” 

“Of course it would, to an insular human mind. But I assure you that is a root.” RF responds. Yixing nods in response, because that’s true. _Natural_ doesn’t necessarily have to mean organic from _Earth._

“Then why aren’t there others?” Kyungsoo always seems to be pugnacious when it comes to RF, but why about this? And his expression when he saw the wire. Yixing’s going to have to ask him if more has happened than just the RD_06 situation. 

“Perhaps you have not looked enough? Or maybe it is your poor vision. Your new glasses are still in the making, it is just taking some time because of the zooming function I am designing on top of everything else I am doing.” Says RF although, again, Yixing has never seen Kyungsoo with glasses.

Kyungsoo Without Glasses mutters something and Yixing catches _"–been ‘in the making’ for a month."_

“You never come out, RF. Especially not at Exoplanet.” Junmyeon says, but it’s not in the interrogating manner Kyungsoo had. “What changed?”

“All EXO members are now activated, therefore I can _chill_ more.” RF not only says something cringeworthy, but also contradicting to the busyness she had just described. “And I am conducting research here. Also, you three are not attending your schedules. And you are conveniently in the same place. So, may I ask why you are not at… D.O: mission archives transcription, Suho: manual food restock, and Lay: training.”

Yixing’s stomach flips at the T word. Didn't Kyungsoo say Exoplanet was free time?!

“Well, I can’t speak for Kyungsoo, but I cancelled events for me and Yixing today.” Junmyeon answers. 

“I already finished them. I have nothing else to do.” Kyungsoo says. Yixing looks to him. Mission archives? Transcription? Restock? Perhaps there is a lot more work and a lot less free time than he thinks. And perhaps he’ll be assimilated into it, but for now he’s (unfortunately? Fortunately?) suffering at the hands of Minseok’s physically exerting sadist regime. 

“You never cancelled anything.” RF responds to Junmyeon, whose countenance changes to confusion. “I shall check… okay: you were on the application, but never confirmed any actions. And D.O, if you had finished, then someone has meddled. The folders are currently empty.”

Junmyeon gives Yixing a sheepish – and really cute why is he so cute – glance, and Kyungsoo mutters again. _“Fucking Jongin… can’t do anything right.”_

Yixing heard what he said, but still asks, “What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Kyungsoo then abruptly leaves the situation without so much as a goodbye.

After he’s a little ways away, RF continues. “I believe D.O had told Kai to file the works for him. And Kai is… currently at Suho’s station, which means he is also not at stationery restock. And Suho is here with Lay. And Xiumin is searching for Lay.”

A chill runs down Yixing’s spine.

A couple seconds of contemplation and he decides the best course of action is to continue talking, because if they separate to go to their schedules Minseok will find Yixing and Yixing will be defenseless and witnessless. 

“That’s cool.” Yixing says though it’s the uncoolest thing he has ever heard, “By the way, how does the Tree of Life work exactly? Why can’t we touch it?”

“Agent Lay, I know you are trying to stall.” Oh, shit. “However, I will comply as this is relevant information for you.” Oh, un-shit. “The Tree of Life is a spectacle of nature. It was normal when growing on its home planet 1893, however it quickly became dangerous when a foreign object hit and the red force started to grow from within. The red force is a dangerous combination of elements with extremely harmful potential if released. This is why we are trying to smother it before it can emerge.”

A dangerous combination of elements? Does that mean the red force, everything they’re fighting, is just a product of fucking _randomess?_

“And you cannot touch it because it is dangerous and letting you inside is enabling accidents to occur. Just like me giving Agent Suho access to the schedules, which you will now go to.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Junmyeon laughs, but it’s more of a nervous ha-ha-I’ll-get-right-to-it than a how-silly-of-me. He then looks to Yixing, an apologetic smile grazing his lips as his hands rest on his shoulders.

“This was my mistake. I’m sorry I ruined your plans, but at least you got to see this.” _Plans_ seems rather sophisticated for _fucking around and finding something interesting (and avoiding Kim Minseok at all costs),_ but okay, Junmyeon. “So you’re supposed to be at the gymnasium. I’ll see you later. Okay?”

“O–“ Yixing begins to say, but then Junmyeon’s hands are suddenly in his hair. He pulls him in, raising on his toes pressing a kiss to his forehead. 

_“Kay…”_ Utters a suddenly breathless Yixing as he watches the man he’s totally whipped for skip away, leaving him with the robot. He slowly turns to RF, trying to distinguish some sort of reaction out of the camera eye and red dot. She doesn’t say anything and Yixing feels embarrassed. In front of a _robot,_ he feels embarrassed.

“What? What are you looking at?”

Finally, she says something. “Your heart rate is currently increased by seven BPM, which is more than the scare raised it. It seems you two are in a homosexual relationship, if I am analyzing your behavior correctly?”

“Yes.” Yixing doesn’t look down in abashment or anything but rather stands his ground. “And what about it?”

“Nothing. As long as your work is not hindered, do whatever you want.” Yixing wishes this were the kind of reaction his mother would have. “Also, you seem embarrassed. Shall I keep this a secret?”

“What?” Yixing is almost offended, “No– I’m not _embarrassed.”_ He sputters despite a couple paragraphs ago. _I’m just flustered because how could you not be flustered when the bestest human you have ever met likes you?!_ “But yeah… we have to, um, figure that out.” 

“Okay.” RF replies. “Or would it be more appropriate to say,” Her voice gains some emotion, albeit staying the same volume, _“O-M-G! Scandalous! But I ship it!”_

A couple seconds of _did she just say what I think she said_ and Yixing’s jaw drops, mortified. He immediately tries to erase this from his mind, but that of course only causes him to think about it more. The way she said it… it sounds so much like one of those girls from his school he never particularly liked, so much like–

“Baekhyun told you that, didn’t he? You need to stop taking advice from him. He’s a terrible representative of human behavior.”

“It sounds like somebody is _salty.”_ The robot replies. She misinterprets Yixing’s too-disappointed-to-react state as confusion. “’Salty’ is a colloquial term meaning–“

 _“I know what salty means.”_ Yixing says in a manner that only corroborates the statement. He already has Baekhyun acting like Baekhyun. He doesn’t need RF acting like Baekhyun too. “Just stop.”

“Okay. If you want to be rude,” It's a bit strange how quickly fear floods him. “Then we can stop talking here and you can get to training. You and Xiumin are sparring, I believe.”

Actually, it’s fine. He can deal with a Baekhyun acting RF. He loves Baekhyun! He loves RF!

“No,” Yixing shakes his head, “I was just kidding. Anyways, how was your day, RF? What were you doing before–“

“And now you are being an _ass-licker._ I shall assume you know what this means.” 

It takes everything Yixing has to respond with composure. “I–“

“That meant for you to get to your training.” The sassy vagary disappears. “Lay, please attend your training. Do not make me have to resort to more than words.”

“Okay. Bye.” Yixing holds in his indignance, wasting no time in putting as much distance between him and the robot as possible. Sure, he’ll exchange banter with RF, but if she says anything along the lines of the wristbands or physical harm, he becomes scared. He doesn’t know where he’s going, but there are soon arrows on said wristband to help with that. After glancing back at the robot, the bracelet then shows a ‘:D’. When he turns a corner out of RF's sight it dawns upon him how fast his heart has been beating this whole time. 

Yixing doesn’t like technology so much anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi so this was a chapter
> 
> meeting ze tree of life was very anticlimactic but I daresay there's more to it......
> 
> also if it totally sounded like that paragraph on yixing's mother was a forced info dump that's because it was
> 
> until next week!!~


	30. Minseok's Sadist Regime – Liberation (Transcribed)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing makes a bet with Minseok to layoff on his too-intense training regimen.

**UNFORTUNATELY,** Kyungsoo had lied and Exoplanet doesn’t mean a vacation from the vigorous schedule. It only means a change of setting.

And still hating Kim Minseok.

“It’s been,” Yixing struggles to get words out because he also has to do this thing called _breathe_ and that is currently very hard, “like, _hours_ … can, we, be done?”

When he dodges the next hit, Minseok charges with rapid-fire punches. The one Yixing _doesn’t_ block ends up being the one to the face.

“No.” Minseok bounces back, giving Yixing a chance to double over and pray he has a nosebleed (so Minseok gets uncomfortable and consequently prospects of escape rise). “Like I’ve said for the last _thirty minutes:_ no.”

Yixing knows that collapsing onto the ground won’t work. Nor will begging. Nor will running away, nor will faking an injury nor persuasion nor ‘passing out’ nor crying nor calling Jongdae’s name nor insults nor insults towards Jongdae nor pretending he has another schedule nor pretending to be shocked by his bracelet nor ‘hearing his name’ nor ‘dying’ nor dying.

He has tried many things.

“What can I do?” When he’s back up (because if he stays down too long he knows what happens), he takes a step away, doing that thing where he keeps backing up whenever he’s advanced upon. However, he tries to make it subtle, because if his trainer realizes what he’s doing, rough attacks will follow. Maybe Yixing has gotten a bit better at combat, as shown in situations like when Baekhyun had tried to trip him on their way to a group training so Yixing dodged it and a moment later swept him right off his feet, or those increasing times when Yixing anticipates Kyungsoo’s petty hits and catches his hand, but he’s still nothing against Minseok. And it’s almost as if the guy keeps getting _better:_ faster, more agile, and even more muscular. He’s jacked yet still trains himself as vigorously as he does Yixing. Yixing sincerely hopes for one of these days to be Minseok’s muscle-building limit and then he just explodes. That’ll show him.

“Spar.” Minseok has become shorter with his words as well as his patience. Not that Yixing can blame him. He would’ve lost his patience with himself all the way back when he handcuffed himself to the bedpost in the EXO-M dorm (“Oh, good morning, Hyung. Unfortunately, it looks like I am incarcerated and as a result cannot train today. Sorry!”). 

“Please, a break,” Yixing is grasping at straws, like every time. And the worst part is that he wasn’t expecting to be training today! So he didn’t do his usual routine of brooding about how much he hates his life while stretching because stretching once just doesn’t seem to cut it. Instead, he just showed up to a more-than-irked Minseok who had him – not even stretch and – sprint around Exoplanet because _“Oh, you got lost? Let’s familiarize you with this place, then.”_

In response to Yixing’s plead, Minseok rolls his eyes, like every time. As Yixing’s looking at him, thinking about how annoying it must be to Minseok to have to listen to him all day, an idea elicits. Not like every time!

“Hyung, how about– hey!” He barely dodges a kick, “I’m _talking_ here!”

“Exactly.” Minseok keeps advancing so Yixing can’t back up any more without hitting the mirrored wall, so he’s forced to do the exhausting half-fight half-make-coherent-speech thing.

“So– can you calm– down!” He identifies a vulnerability, Minseok’s arm raised in a block, and throws a haphazard punch straight into his stomach. Luckily, it works, and it’s so strong that the other coughs and backs off. A rare victory.

“Okay,” Yixing doesn’t bother to apologize or ask if he’s alright. Minseok’s never hurt. “As I was saying, I have a proposition: what if–“

Then, he’s flipped.

In one quick movement, the wind is knocked out of him and all of the sudden he’s opening his eyes to see the ceiling. Surprise shocks him but he doesn’t have the air to gasp. He hadn’t even seen it coming! Before he can react, however, he is forced onto his stomach, his arm being grabbed and pinned behind him. He feels Minseok’s knee digging into the small of his back, right arm being twisted at an angle that is suddenly _very_ painful.

“Stop! _Stop!”_ Yixing yelps, trying to fight it. But not only is he weaker, he is also under the weight of a whole other man, so it’s fruitless. It seems Minseok wants to test his boundaries, because the pressure does stop for a moment after the shout, but then continues, stronger. A searing pain erupts in his shoulder and a cry escapes him.

When this happens, Minseok finally stops. He gets off gently, standing up and looming over the pained Yixing. The Pained Yixing slowly rolls over onto his back. His shoulder is worryingly loose as the burn settles.

He sits up, glaring. “What the hell?!”

Minseok’s brows raise and eyes widen innocently, as if he’s confused at what’s wrong. Of course, the guy is hard on him, but he never voluntarily hurts him! Was it because he punched him? When Yixing sees one of his hands raise to his stomach, the spot he hit, he has his answer.

“Just because I got a hit on you for once doesn’t mean you have to _hurt_ me.” He grumbles, but takes the opportunity to just sit there. He cradles his arm as if it’s hurt more than it actually is, hoping for even the slightest of pity.

“It’s not my fault you didn’t protect yourself.” Minseok replies.

Yixing looks up at him, jaw dropping in indignance. A bout of frustration seethes through him but he doesn’t do anything about it. When he does do anything about it, which is more often than not, whatever he’s training at becomes messy and his shit mood only heightens. “…Fine. Anyways. As I was going to propose: how about we make a deal?”

“If you say–“

“No, like, an actual deal. No deceit. No bribery.” Yixing doesn’t want to relieve the time he had persuaded him with these candies he didn’t actually have.

A moment of consideration. “What is it?”

“How about, if I can beat _anyone_ else in a match, just a normal, three points match, then we stop training.” The look on Minseok’s face and it’s quickly modified, “We stop training as long and vigorously and I can wake up when I want.”

Yixing doesn’t pray, but tries to use all of his mind power to convince Minseok to say _yes_ because if he can take atoms from things then maybe he can do this too.

It doesn’t work, obviously, but Minseok, to his utter delight, still slowly nods. “Okay… fine. But I’m picking the order. Let’s go.”

 _“What?”_ Yixing gawks. “Right _now?”_

“Yes, right now. Get up.”

“But…” Yixing tries to come up with something more sophisticated and convincing, but what else can he say for a half hour sprint and a half hour spar? “…I’m tired. Exhausted.”

 _“Awe,_ I don’t care.” 

And because Yixing truly understands Minseok does not give a rat’s ass, he just sighs, tearing off his gloves and getting his water. He’s going to need it.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

It was about a minute into their agreement that Minseok realized they were the only ones in the room, so he had to 1) figure out everyone’s schedules, 2) go find everyone, 3) tell them the dealio and bring them back, and 4) have them finally fight Yixing. Unfortunately, however, RF had been listening in, so as soon as Yixing was dragged out the door Minseok’s wristband lit up in a chart of everyone’s current whereabouts. Minseok already looked pleased enough with that so Yixing didn’t give him the pleasure of a reaction. Maybe all this bottled up rage will have Yixing explode first.

This is how it went:

_“Auh?”_ Uttered Jongin, who they caught at The Main Cube. He tilted his head down to spill out all the jenga blocks and listened to Minseok explain what was going on. Like the great and amazing boy he is, he let Yixing lean on his side and even offered to teleport them to everyone else. Minseok, who was already unimpressed with Yixing’s partial aid, insisted they walk.

“Why is _he_ with you.” Pointed Sehun, who was in the kitchen with about twenty different ingredients messily splayed across the island. Jongin started to touch everything and Sehun kept shoving him away and Yixing tried to not let a fight ensue and Minseok struggled to explain what was going on over _“Get the hell away.”_ and “Is this a cabbage or a lettuce?”

“It wasn’t me!” Shouted Baekhyun, hiding behind Jongdae who stood in front of a pool of green substance in some kind of laboratory room. Jongdae just laughed and greeted his boyfriend and his boyfriend explained the dealio and Yixing inched away because he is still status: strongly dislikes Jongdae. This dislike deepened when they started down the hall to gather Junmyeon and Chanyeol and Jongdae kept looking between him and Baekhyun and snickering and Baekhyun tried to get him to stop and Sehun got suspicious and Yixing got a bad feeling in his stomach.

“But I also still have to…” Started Chanyeol, who held one side of a large metal box while Junmyeon held the other (and smiled at Yixing it was great he's awesome). Jongdae told him to shut the fuck up and Minseok explained and Junmyeon said it’s okay it won’t take all day and Chanyeol acquiesced and then there was only one more (alive) EXO member to collect. Junmyeon gave Yixing free refills for his water bottle to which Minseok side-eyed them and Yixing got nervous¹. Junmyeon also walked right next to Yixing with the backs of their hands brushing and it was obvious Junmyeon kept trying to take it and Yixing got nervous². Jongdae continued to look between him and Baekhyun with that dumb as fuck smile and Junmyeon noticed and Yixing got nervous³⁰⁰⁰.

“Nothing– it’s nothing.” Stuttered Kyungsoo as he shoved his hands in front of a large screen, then shooting up from his seat to usher everyone out of the records room. He slammed the door behind him despite protests and ignored such as Minseok explained what was going on. Yixing was a bit surprised to see him agree right away, especially considering if he’s hiding whatever was on that screen then it’s probably important (or porn). He didn’t bother to beat around the bush and asked him “What are you hiding?”, but then Kyungsoo replied with “What are _you_ hiding?” and looked pointedly at Junmyeon and Yixing doesn’t know how but a high-pitched laugh escaped him and Kyungsoo just found that _so_ funny. Yixing was at the point of hitting him but then Kyungsoo did something that made his shoulder all better.

First up is EXO’s youngest, who Yixing already knows will crush him. The collection of everybody took maybe an hour, but nonetheless now they’re all here, eyeing poor Yixing who thinks he can beat Sehun in a sparring match (because Minseok had made sure to specify “This was all Yixing’s idea").

He really doesn’t.

“Okay, ready?” Judge Minseok asks, giving a hard look to Sehun. It’s obvious that Minseok just wants to get it over with. That’s why he's having the two best sparrers go first: tire and discourage Yixing before he even gets to the easier ones. The others, however, seem to be enjoying this. They’re lined against the mirrored wall with bright countenances of entertainment. Jongin has even gone to the extent of stripping his shirt to use as a pom-pom. Yixing knows it’s because they’ve all heard and witnessed fragments of Yixing’s legendary suffering and now actually have the chance to see it up close.

“Yep.” Sehun says monotone, looking at Yixing like a bored predator at its defenseless prey. Not that Yixing is going to be eaten. He hopes.

“Cool. Go.” The judge steps back to let the fight commence (before Yixing even said he was ready, at that). Despite the anticlimactic signal, Yixing’s heart speeds up, adrenaline rushing into him as he readies his guard.

Sehun doesn’t seem to be putting in much. His stance is sluggish, only picking up if Yixing gets near– which he’s too afraid to. But that’s fine. He’s better at defense than offense, Minseok says, and he agrees, so he’ll wait until he’s hit. It goes on like this until there’s a shout from the crowd:

“Yixing, you pussy! Hit him!” 

Yixing, You Pussy, makes the mistake of glaring at an obnoxious Jongdae. This is a mistake because the split second his eyes are off Sehun, he is hit. It’s not very hard, but it’s still on the side of his head and a–

“Point~!” Judge Minseok grins, gesturing for them to reset. “Okay, now get two more.”

With a glare from Yixing and a grumble from Sehun, it continues, except there is now more input from the audience.

“Sehun, why aren’t you trying?!”

“Yixing, just _go!”_

“Y’all stink!”

“Boo!”

“Sehun sucks!”

“So Yixing’s a virgin _and_ a pussy!”

At least they get the same amount of hate and exchange sympathizing looks whenever someone throws an insult. However, Yixing knows better than to let Sehun’s slightly softened face distract him. Constant vigilance.

Except that Constant Vigilance eventually gets boring. Yixing’s patience relents and he attempts offence. He doesn’t dare to try anything with his legs, making sure they’re planted so he doesn’t impulsively kick while trying to get a punch in.

This backfires, though, because _somehow_ Sehun could tell all of his weight was on his heels and then he’s quickly off his feet. A giant _oooooooh!_ elicits from the crowd, which dissolves into laughs. Yixing feels his face heat up as he stands. 

“Alright. That was two. One more– or three more, for you Yixing. I guess. Go.”

After a minute of circling, Yixing decides that it’s not worth it to try his luck with Sehun. In order for the most successful result, he should take it easy with the great fighters, saving his energy for when he goes against the not-so-great ones. It would totally counter Minseok’s intentions. Although he hasn’t seen _everyone_ fight, he is pretty sure the worst is either Kyungsoo or Chanyeol or maybe Jongdae.

Sehun finishes him with a kick to the side. There’s uproar, as if the whole fight had been a roller coaster ride of uncertainty (but it makes sense; the closest thing to consumable entertainment here is those tablets– the same ones that monitor the screen-time and shut off after an hour).

“Hyung,” Sehun asks after Minseok forces them to shake hands. “Why didn’t you try?”

“Take it as a compliment.” Is all Yixing answers, then giving a weary glance to his second opponent, Jongin. Isn’t he better than Sehun, too? He certainly doesn’t look like his most formidable opponent with his sunshine smile and excited squeal. Even shirtless (“Yo, Jongjong, lemme see that pom-pom.”) he looks nothing but wholesome.

But that changes as soon as Minseok says, “Go.”

A vagary overcomes sweetheart Jongin and his face snaps solemn. Yixing has before caught glimpses of him sparring, he’s fast and unceasing, but he had never noticed the expression change. But now that he’s here, standing under this guy’s glare, Yixing realizes he’s also terrifying.

This match lasts even shorter than Sehun’s.

Jongin isn’t playing around. He takes to immediate offense, only needing about five seconds to get a slow reaction or mistake out of Yixing. It’s especially embarrassing when he's tossed onto his stomach and Sunshine Jongin returns to pat his butt.

“Come on, Hyung. Get up! _Fighting!”_

And then everyone laughs and then Yixing wishes he had teleportation so he could disappear. If this were a group of strangers, this wouldn’t feel so humiliating because he doesn’t care for the judgements of strangers. He does, however, slightly care for the judgements of the people he has been eating, sleeping, and breathing with for the last two months. And the feeling is amplified when they’re all laughing and making harsh comments and jokes at once. All except for Junmyeon, of course, who abstains and tries to stop the joking before it becomes too much. However, Yixing spots Kyungsoo retort something that makes Junmyeon recoil into shyness. The taunting continues.

But Yixing deals with it. He has a plan: wait until the bad ones are up and then use all of his effort.

This plan comes into action once Jongin has beaten him three to nothing (and then him and Sehun begin to bicker about who was faster), and Kyungsoo once again redeems himself and says, “I think Chanyeol should go, now.” A tacit message exchanges from of this sequence of events: they make eye contact, Kyungsoo nods his head at Chanyeol and gives a thumbs down, and then Kyungsoo points back at Yixing himself and gives a thumbs up. So perhaps Chanyeol is a gentle giant.

This is only proven with Chanyeol’s deer-in-headlights look when his name is volunteered and the way he fumbles to get the gloves on, as if he hasn’t done it in a very long time. Even more so when Minseok’s eyes bulge, immediately rejecting.

“No! Not Chanyeol,” He says, rushing over and snatching the gloves from the poor guy. “It’s my choice who goes. That’s part of the deal. And I choose Junmyeon.”

“What’s wrong with Chanyeol, Hyung?” Junmyeon doesn’t move. In that moment, Yixing thanks Junmyeon’s unrelenting kindness.

Minseok stares at him for a couple seconds before, “Okay– fine– Baekhyun, you go.” And when Baekhyun doesn’t move either, “Dae! Babe, come on… Kyungsoo…”

“Babe, that’s a little mean.” The Unholy Trinity’s solidarity is tested. Minseok’s face contorts in shock when Jongdae continues with, “You’re gonna make him cry.”

A small chant of _Let him go!_ begins before Minseok's patience ends, begrudgingly shoving the gloves back into the wide-eyed Chanyeol’s grip. Yixing holds back a smile.

 _“Go.”_ The judge spits before Chanyeol’s even ready, twirling a hand. The gesture is lackadaisical, but Yixing knows Minseok's on edge.

When they take their stances, he gets the impulse that Chanyeol is not very offensive. Because of this, he studies further and then realizes, _wow!_ His gut was right! Chanyeol is doing what he himself often does: standing purely defensive and keeping a good distance from the opponent. 

So, in turn, he knows how to attack it.

As Minseok does to him, Yixing charges fast, meeting him with several hard hits. Chanyeol reacts quicker and far better than he expects, but still slow enough for Yixing to actually compete. In fact, it’s only a couple seconds before he sneaks in the perfect punch towards Chanyeol’s side, which–

“Point, Chanyeol!”

 _“What?!”_ Yixing didn’t mean for it to come out that loud and indignant and everyone laughs at the reaction. He freezes in his place, his fist in the perfect position for a point. “But I just…?”

“He hit your head, dumbass.” Minseok points. There are more laughs.

Ensues a movie-like five seconds of Yixing slowly looking up to Chanyeol’s face, and then to his fist that happens to be on his head. Chanyeol gives a gentle tap.

 _“Bonk.”_ He giggles, backing up.

“Oh…” Yixing shakes the wow-I’m-stupid off, stepping back as well. Chanyeol is like a head taller than him. Right. And no matter how cute he is, Yixing is going to get those points. Partially because he wants to wipe that look off Minseok’s face and partially because he’s afraid Chanyeol and his bonking is the easiest he’s going to get

“Go~.”

So what he has to do is the same thing as last time except while being careful of the above. Although he hasn’t had much experience with defending from above (remember, _Minseok_ is who he trains with), it can’t possibly be _that_ hard. Right?

Right. Yixing merely has to adjust the angle his body is at, which makes him realize, when he earns a point, that maybe he should angle himself like this more often. It gives him more of a range than just straight defense. He hits Chanyeol in the same place. The guy's long arms aren’t very good for responding to quick, knife-like punches. He’ll use this to his advantage.

“Point, Yixing.”

There’s reaction.

“What, _really?!”_

“Yeah Yixing!”

“Chanyeol, stop sucking.”

“God, _f_ _inally.”_

 _Who said that?_ Yixing whips his head to the six sitting against the wall, finding none any more suspicious than the other except for Junmyeon who smiles at him upon eye contact and Kyungsoo who narrows his eyes. 

Once they start again, Yixing goes in with the same strategy: speed. It's toiling on his part, but the outcome is great. This time, he gets a successful hit on Chanyeol’s chest, which was luckily just before he would have gotten a point (from Bonk 2).

“Point, Yixing? Wow.” The in no way biased Judge Minseok says, then signaling for the third round. Yixing doesn’t miss the glare he sends to Chanyeol, who nervously recoils.

To be honest, it feels nice to be winning. Having been inadequate for so long, and still being so in most situations, it is not only refreshing, but also accomplishing to finally beat _someone_ at _something._ Suddenly, Yixing recalls the very first time he was in the gymnasium with everyone else. He was in his pajamas sitting on the floor while everyone else tried not to stare. How pathetic he was.

It’s a bit different now.

Perhaps he’ll even consider himself good, Yixing thinks when suddenly, Chanyeol is on the floor. He had slipped his ankle under his too-wide stance, tripping him. _He_ did that. Yixing did that.

There are gasps as Chanyeol groans, Yixing’s eyes widening not in are-you-okay, but in holy-shit! That means he beat him! That means… 

_‘We stop training as long and vigorously and I can wake up when I want.’_

Minseok kneels by Chanyeol, mumbling something that makes him pout as he’s not helped up. Yixing doesn’t miss his chance. He can’t control the wide grin that spreads his cheeks as he stands in front of his trainer.

“Well, Hyung… You know what that means!” He beams, tearing off his gloves and dropping them at the other’s feet. It feels _so_ nice to be disrespectful. 

“You’re _welcome.”_ Minseok hisses, eyes narrowed. He clearly wasn’t expecting this. “It’s thanks to me you were even able to do that. You should be _grateful."_

Yixing shrugs in response, still smiling. “Yes, it is. So thanks. But also, this means from now on, I’m not dealing with _any_ more of your sadist bullshit, you cat-eyed mother–“

“Yixing! Hey, buddy!” Baekhyun is suddenly hanging off his shoulder, whispering something too fast to discern before pulling him away from the seething Minseok. 

“Dude,” He says once they’re out of the judge’s ear, still on his shoulder, “I know that look. He was boutta kill you.” 

“If anything, he should kill Chanyeol.” Yixing replies, stepping out of his hold. “He’s the one who lost.”

“I think he is.” He then follows Baekhyun’s gaze to where Chanyeol is currently being bro-held by Minseok, except it seems like a rather tight bro-hold that involves several angry words from the bro-holder.

“Why does he care so much?” Yixing asks. He would probably get a better answer from Jongdae but he doesn't care to talk to Jongdae. “I don’t see the fun in training me besides sadism but he insists he is not a sadist.”

“Well, he’s like a work-out addict, but he can't to do it himself except for free time cause he’s already at the requirements so he does something that lets him be able to do it for schedules.” Baekhyun answers. “It gets him out of other stuff, too. Just like this whole thing for everyone. So thanks. Dude, before this, I was _cleaning._ Cleaning! Like, what is this, Earth?”

“No,” Yixing replies literally, then gravitating in Junmyeon’s direction. He wants to go see him. This looks mutual, by the way Junmyeon keeps looking over Sehun’s shoulder to meet his eyes.

However, they never meet. Sehun catches on, and Yixing is glared at simultaneous to being pulled in the other direction. 

“Come on, I’m not done with you!” Baekhyun grins, spinning him around. “You know how I was just talking about how I was cleaning?”

Yixing glances back to see Junmyeon being ushered out the door and his heart sinks. “Yeah…”

“Okay, well, it would be even _funner_ with a friend.”

 _“...Funner_ isn’t a–“

“Bye guys!” Baekhyun announces, yanking Yixing in a grip so tight that it almost makes him regret doing all of this.

Almost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok lol I will shamelessly say this was a filler chapter... but I still hope it was at least entertaining! and gave insight to yix's athletic life. and not to spoil but (spoiler) the depressing stuff comes soon don't worry <3 like I swear this story takes a 180 too fast bc I am super amazing great at plotting 
> 
> ok bye !! thank you for reading and kudos and comment and yeah <3


	31. Plot Holes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A secretive comrade finally comes out with what he's been hiding.

**THAT NIGHT,** like the others at Exoplanet, Yixing falls asleep peacefully. This is his second happiest fall-asleep. He drifts out of consciousness with an only semi-sore body, having cut the last half of the day of training to clean with Baekhyun. Now that they're considered 'friends', Baekhyun's actually a pretty funny and interesting guy. The slight chemical smell to his skin was worth hanging out with him, and it was nice to go above the shallow line of cohabitants and actually learn about each other (though Yixing would've skipped over the "you can get teachers to do _anything_ with a little bit of–! Kay, wait, so let me tell you about this one time," but he'd be lying to himself if he said the way Baekhyun told it wasn't at least a little entertaining). The best part of this all, too, is how that anxiety of getting inadequate sleep or Minseok surprising him with a 'midnight match' is all gone. Yixing can practically see the image of hands on his shoulders and two cat eyes floating above him fading away. He'll never be bothered in his sleep again.

Or maybe he spoke (inner third-person dialogue) too soon.

Perception fades back in to the point of partially intelligible thoughts as there's something poking his knee. His eyes don't open and he readjusts himself, sighing into the comforter.

It doesn't stop, though. When enough movement is done for Yixing to awaken to sentence-based thinking, he realizes that the poking is not just a random muscle spasm. It's an external source and it's not stopping when he moves.

Not wanting to relieve the same situation he has numerous other nights, Yixing immediately shoots up, back against the headboard and fists ready in defense. If Minseok wants to usher him into one last midnight session, he'll cry. If Baekhyun wants to go back on their whole friendship and try to murder him again, he'll murder him first. If poor Junmyeon just wants to cuddle, he'll apologize profusely. Fortunately and fortunately and unfortunately, it is none of them.

Kyungsoo's eyes widen.

So do Yixing's, because _why is he in here?_ He sits at the foot of the bed, his pointer finger frozen where Yixing's knee had just been as if he's a child trying to wake up a parent. He's wearing pajamas, but Yixing's pretty sure he didn't come in here to snuggle (the majority of physical contact with Kyungsoo includes that of violence).

When Kyungsoo doesn't say anything, just stares, Yixing goes and states the obvious. "You're in my room."

"Yes." Kyungsoo snaps out of whatever scare he was in – although _Yixing_ should be the one scared! – and retracts his hand. "Hi."

"Why– hi... why are you in here?" He casts a glance to the closed door, then realizing there isn't exactly a way he _could've_ gotten in here. He locked it. "And how?"

"Broke the handle. Anyway," Kyungsoo brushes off as if breaking and entering is completely normal. "I need to talk to you."

"This couldn't wait until tomorrow...?" Yixing quickly finds himself cold and tries to bring the comforter up to his face, except that it doesn't budge under Kyungsoo so he settles with hugging his pillow and trying to absorb the warmth. He wonders why Kyungsoo thought the middle of the night was the best time. The schedules can't be _that_ busy, can they?

"Well, it's just..." Despite the breaking and entering that probably held a solid intention, Kyungsoo breaks eye contact and looks down as if he has no idea why he's here. And Yixing also has no idea, but as more seconds of silence pass he tries to come up with one.

"Are you being shy because you're about to open up to me about some internal angst?" Yixing's eyes light up and Kyungsoo's eyes narrow and then Yixing is reminded of the look he gave everyone earlier today after slamming the records room door and then Yixing is reminded that _oh yeah,_ Kyungsoo _has_ been real secretive lately. A montage of more relevant possibilities run through his mind: will Kyungsoo further elaborate on what he thinks RD_06 is about? Why RF went to such extents to protect its secrecy? Why he's been so reluctant to say anything about it? Or maybe the events of today: the pure suspicion in which he regarded RF when arguing the Tree of Life's authenticity; what that 'root' was? Or aforementioned what he was hiding in the records room? (Though Yixing has a feeling that one was just porn).

"No, I'm perfectly fine." Says Kyungsoo who always wears black and doesn't speak unless spoken to or it's an insult. "It's not about me, it's more about..." Yixing for a second questions if he's hallucinating that Kyungsoo pulls up his wristband, pointing a finger at his faded scar. "...This kind of stuff."

"Oh..." Yixing's mind goes to the topic but there's an initial roadblock of: "Why? I thought you said you didn't want to talk about it." What changed? And why? Yixing thought there were no answers; was no more to talk about. 

"Well," Kyungsoo puts his wristband back and merely offers a, "changed my mind." His mind? _That's_ what changed?

"Changed your mind?" Yixing repeats. "When I first questioned you you used the adjective 'traumatic' and you looked like you were about to cry."

"I _changed my mind,_ okay?" Kyungsoo's voice comes tense and a bit of fear strikes Yixing so he just replies with a tiny _okay._ The boy across from him sighs. How long has it been since they last talked about it? Yixing really had shoved it to the back of his mind (though more for coping than any actual desire). And why is Kyungsoo wanting to talk about it _now?_ Or is Yixing thinking too far, there's obviously nothing more to it, and Kyungsoo is actually just telling him about this super cool new burn cream.

"I... I think there's something seriously wrong with this place."

Or not. Maybe there is more to talk about.

Kyungsoo's gaze again falls to the sheets. Yixing can't take anything out of his expressionless countenance, though it's mostly obscured by the dark. He reaches over and tries to turn on the lamp on the nightstand but nothing happens. Had Kyungsoo broken more than just the door handle? 

"Like what?" Yixing prompts since he still hasn't elaborated. If Kyungsoo's struggling to say it, does that mean it's bad? What could it be? Despite telling himself over and over again that there are no answers and to stop thinking about it, he sits up and leans forward as if Kyungsoo's next words will be the key to immortality. Or what he means when he says he thinks there's something 'seriously wrong' with this place.

"Um..." Kyungsoo goes like he didn't have anything else to say. "You see, it's kind of hard to explain, because, well, it sounds rather far-fetched."

"Getting abducted to save the universe is also far-fetched." Kyungsoo said it was This Kind of Stuff so Yixing looks to his wrist and adds, "Along with being scalded to the bone by your robot leader."

Kyungsoo lets out a mirthful breath, but he doesn't smile. "Right."

He then looks up. It seems he's gained confidence. "I've been here a long time, Hyung. I hit my two years around when you got here. And you know me well enough to know I like to ask a lot of questions, in order to know the logistics of everything."

"Yes." Yixing is the same way, which is one reason why he likes Kyungsoo.

"And I know you're similar, too, so, just, does it ever sometimes feel as if your questions aren't getting answered? That the answers you're given are right, but not satisfactory? Like when someone tells you the truth but not the whole truth?"

It's too fast curiosity turns into discomfort.

"Elaborate." He says instead of confirming.

"Well, I kind of..." Kyungsoo then shakes his head. "Never mind. But, that, what I said, it's how I've been feeling for a very long time. Mostly because I find, how should I say... _plot holes._ Small ones, but holes nonetheless. For example... earlier today. You know how I said I was told the Tree of Life is technology? And then RF said I was told it is natural?"

"Yes." Yixing also remembers his calculating stare at the robot, his abnormal perplexion. He had a feeling there was more to it.

"She was telling the truth. _I_ was told that. But others weren't... Yifan. He used to keep a lot of journals of stuff. After he died, I found myself looking through them. And when you pointed out the wire, I recalled that he had written that he was told it was all technology."

"By RF?" So RF was lying to one of them?

"Well, no... I don't know if you know this, but there used to be another robot. Just like RF. It was Mandarin and was her counterpart. Which is why you don't see RF going around speaking or understanding the language."

"Wait... CF?" RF's 'counterpart', and now that he puts two and two together, _sister,_ spoke Mandarin?

"Yeah. CF. You know about it?"

Which means that not only are the Mandarin speaking members dead, the Mandarin speaking robot is also gone. It's clear RF has a disdain for Yixing, all started from the paper in his native language. Everything Mandarin has been eliminated; is it seen as a threat? _Why?_

"I do..."

And by what Kyungsoo's saying, CF and RF gave the members different– no, _contradicting,_ information. Something just like _You did not throw away the paper, Agent Lay,_ and how he had watched said paper burn to nothing but particles too small for him to see. How he had written it in his mother language yet it showed up in Korean. How he was shocked for telling the truth. And now, this, how two different bots tell two different things. _Plot holes._

"So–"

"Yes." Yixing blurts, feeling his heart speed up a little for some reason. "I know what you mean. Plot holes."

But despite his racing heartbeat nothing happens except for Kyungsoo responding with, "Wait, really?" 

"Yes." Yixing repeats, this time with confidence. Kyungsoo had hit _precisely_ the internal debate he thought he was over: that he's completely fine here, everything he has questioned is just him being dramatic, and this is why he will never get answers. Weeks of telling himself this is proven useless as it only takes a couple seconds and he's spilling everything to Kyungsoo.

"So, Kyungsoo, there's more than me getting burned from seeing RD. One day, about a month ago, I wrote a letter. I wrote it in Mandarin. And then I threw it away, in the trash destroyers, you know?" A glance and a nod, "And I saw it obliterated. Destroyed. Yet later, the same night I was burned from seeing RD, Junmyeon showed up with the letter in his hands _translated into Korean_. _Still_ in my handwriting though I never wrote anything Korean. And I said I didn't know what it was, it wasn't mine, and I was shocked. And I went to RF about this, and she told me I never threw away the letter. And just kept repeating that. I never threw away the letter. As if she'd say it enough times and I'd believe it..."

Yixing looks up to gauge Kyungsoo's reaction, but he's just staring at the bed.

"Are you zoning out or are you processing?" He asks because he often does the former.

"Second." Kyungsoo takes about another ten seconds.

"That's strange... I have never had an experience with something being _recovered_ from the disposal, much less manipulated. Or straight up lied to by RF. What was on the paper?"

"Mandarin." And that, for some reason, is the problem.

"Yeah– I mean, what did you _write?_ What was the writing about?"

Yixing hesitates. "Not important."

"Yes, it is... _Yixing..."_

"To my mother." He fabricates. It's not even as embarrassing as the truth. "I missed her. So I just... did that."

Kyungsoo's eyebrows furrow. "But don't you hate her?"

"Doesn't mean I can't miss her." 'Hate' is a strong word, but right now isn't the time to dote on the details. Well, the details of _that–_ because right now is actually _all_ about the details.

"Alright, well, did it have any threats or hate-speech on it?" Kyungsoo asks, eliciting an indignant look. "Well– look– I'm just trying to fathom why it would be detected as something that should be recovered and why RF would've told you that you never threw it away."

"I watched it burn right in front of my eyes..." He _did._ And no robot telling him otherwise is going to change that. "I don't get how it could possibly _be_ recovered."

"I don't know either, but evidently it did. Now tell me, what was on it?"

"I told you, a letter to my mom. And besides, it seems to me RF just has a dislike for Mandarin things. Maybe because CF's gone and RF can't speak the language it was detected as foreign and for some reason manipulated, but it's a bit strange that RF doesn't know Mandarin. Shouldn't she have all the information in the universe?"

Kyungsoo thinks for a moment before his face lights up. _"Yes,_ actually. Detected as foreign. That sounds about right. I think there are bots specifically for translation. Somewhere. It's like... you see, RF has great intelligence, but technically not all the information in the universe. She can get it easily, but they're stored in other units and that require manual transportation. Going to the source. That's why the ship is so massive and there are things like the records room. And ever since they... ever since they passed away, there hasn't been a need for Mandarin. So her system probably flagged it foreign at first and had it translated. She monitors the garbage disposals."

"Okay." Yixing nods. That question is answered. "But how did it get into Junmyeon's hands, then? In my handwriting? And why would RF insist to me that I never threw it away?"

"It easily could've been left around somewhere, though I doubt it." Kyungsoo says. "And for it being in _your_ handwriting, I have no idea– but this is what I am talking about; this is what I wanted to say, which is now corroborated by that: the little things– the details. They're _off,_ and not in such a way that it's likely to be accidental. RF told you that you never threw that paper away. RF told me that the Tree of Life was made from nature while CF told Yifan it was technology. They're..."

"Lies." Yixing finishes for him, his erratic heart sinking at the word.

_Lies._

An inherently human trait penetrates the technological world. Of course, Yixing should've realized that self-awareness includes the ability to lie. If RF can make jokes, there is no reason she cannot lie. So, why? With lie comes motive. Lies are _always_ told for a reason, and this reason has to be something she doesn't want them to know.

"Why is RF lying?" Yixing asks the grand question.

"I don't know... but I kind of have had a feeling that... that..." Kyungsoo suddenly gets shy again, playing with the leg of his pajama pants. Now that Yixing's eyes are adjusted to the dark he can see they're dark blue with small breakdancing penguins all over the place. A bit strange for the character wearing them, but Yixing who wears superman pajamas doesn't question it.

"That what?" He prompts. "I don't think you're crazy. In fact, I'm actually really relieved– well, worried, but still relieved. Because you're telling me _I'm_ not crazy."

"Right." Kyungsoo mutters, looking back up.

"I think RF has something to do with their deaths. Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao."

At Kyungsoo's now decipherable expression, Yixing feels thrown in the past: at the moment he had been told that three of us are dead. Fear, tugging the edges of Kyungsoo's face, prickling the surface of Yixing's skin, clenching his stomach.

"Why?" His throat wasn't this dry a moment ago.

Kyungsoo becomes timid again, "Sorry– that, that was really blunt... so CF, she was destroyed. By being ripped apart and crushed. Something that is far too messy to be at the hands of robots." Or is that what a robot would want you to think? "And it seems that if RF is lying to us now... originally, I had questioned what CF told Yifan, but if RF lied to you, then it's likely she lied to me too. And if she's lying to us, that means there's something bad going on. And CF would have known about that too. And, well, CF was destroyed only a couple weeks before their death. And, well..."

Yixing scans the other’s face, trying to find a sense of insincerity, he's not saying what he thinks he is. Something that doesn’t totally undermine all of the safety Yixing thought he had here.

Yet inevitably, he asks, “Are you suggesting that the three of them _destroyed_ CF and from that… they were _killed?_ By _RF?”_

“I don’t know, Hyung. I don’t know.” Kyungsoo shakes his head, “It– it’s a possibility. Luhan was really powerful with telekinesis. Zitao could stop time. They could’ve…”

It’s not a normal fear either, the one that can be alleviated by comforting words, because don’t worry, trust in the system, it will be taken care of, you will make it. It’s the fear that there is absolutely nothing Yixing can trust in; the kind of fear that tears apart security and lets in certain thoughts. The ones that make him vulnerable; keep him up all night. And why is he _believing_ Kyungsoo?

“But RF said they died on a mission.” So there’s no way it can be true. There has to be some other explanation to all of this that doesn’t take away security.

“I know, but– but RF’s a _liar.”_

But he can’t find one.

It all makes sense and that’s the worst part. It makes sense that given CF was destroyed – and it wasn't at the hands of RF –, RF would punish the destroyers, because the destroyers did what they did because they knew something they shouldn’t have. It’s evident that there is information the members of EXO shouldn’t know. Information that perhaps, with CF and RF having told different things, only _some_ members had gotten ahold of through certain means. Perhaps RF is trying to prevent this from happening again by lying. By burning Yixing. Scaring him into submission. 

Even what Kyungsoo didn't suggest makes sense: that RF could have destroyed CF and killed the three Chinese members because of their language. Although Mandarin itself isn't inherently dangerous, RF still has a dislike for it. Perhaps, if CF gave Yifan different, probably _true_ , information, then perhaps there was internal conflict between RF and CF. Perhaps the Mandarin speaking members were involved in this conflict– it's too much of a coincidence for all of one language, one way of encryption, one ethnicity, one way to team up, to be wiped out all of the sudden. But _why?_ What would they have done? What information were they not supposed to know?

And “What would this have to do with RD?” Yixing speaks rather quickly as to avoid recalling the night. “We were both punished for seeing it. Something we shouldn’t have. There's something we shouldn't know about it.”

“Again, I don’t know, Yixing-hyung. I don’t know what it has to do with RD, what it has to do with us being burned, what it has to do with the wire in the Tree of Life, what it has to do with that letter of yours, what it has to do with RF lying to you, what it has to do with me returning to the mission archives and seeing my progress was _reset,_ that Jongin didn't mess anything up… I don’t know how any of it connects, except for the fact that they’re all plot holes. 

“So it’s what we need to figure out. We can prove– or, we _know_ that she is lying, but not the reason why.”

Yixing’s tired mind is at a stump for finding a route that ensures safety. Maybe it’s because there isn’t one. There are too many plot holes that he can’t rationalize in cohesion. And, besides, he has had enough of denying reality.

He sighs, breath a bit shaky from the room’s temperature. That's all.

“So how are you planning to investigate the motives of an artificial intelligence?”

“Hyung, look at your bracelet.”

He’s caught off guard. “Huh?”

“Try to turn it on.”

Yixing lifts his wrist up, tapping on the screen. For some reason, it remains black. He does it again, even offering a _hello?_ before looking up at Kyungsoo. This. The lights not working. The way, he realizes, Kyungsoo has gone this whole time without even sparing a glance to his bracelet as compared to when he gripped it as if trying to smother it... This guy is truly a genius.

“How did you do that?”

“Short answer is hacking.” Was Kyungsoo studying computer engineering or something before he came here? What a nerd.

Curiosity demands more details. “What’s the long one?”

“I went into the security unit and went to the console and freed a page to allocate the wristband systems and assigned inhibitor funct–“

“Okay, that’s cool.” Yixing smiles, receiving an unamused look.

 _“You asked.”_ Kyungsoo mutters, voice then picking up. “Anyway, as I was saying: I have the ability to block off some of the monitoring for some amounts of time. At least, I can here on Exoplanet. The bracelets listen in on what you're saying, so that's why I had gotten so nervous the first time you kept asking." Oh, that makes sense. "In fact, if you didn’t know, your bracelet keeps track of _every single thing_ you do. The only thing it can’t access are your thoughts. Yet.”

How reassuring. 

“So you can’t talk to me about this if I don’t give you the go," He continues, "and obviously you can’t tell anyone else. We’ll talk more and investigate in the records room tomorrow night, because I don’t know how much longer we are good for tonight. I want to see what their last days were like, and maybe how CF was destroyed, if it's there… I’m almost _positive_ it all has to do with them. And I’ll bring you Yifan’s journal to read. It’s all in Korean.”

Nodding, Yixing looks down at the bed, trying to pick up the blanket because he quickly finds himself cold except that it doesn't budge under Kyungsoo so he 1) settles with hugging the pillow tighter and 2) remembers he already tried this. He plans he is going to take a nap sometime tomorrow; he knows he’ll be up all night thinking about this.

God, ignorance is truly bliss. 

He lifts his head back up, meeting eyes with Kyungsoo. “Also, I just want to say _fuck you._ Because now I’m going to be on edge because I genuinely believe what you’re saying and having the system that keeps you alive, especially one you’re powerless against, lying to you is very unnerving.”

“Alright.” Not much offense seems to be taken. “But I really had no other choice. I can’t do this alone, and I wasn’t even sure of myself. I didn’t know if I was just overanalyzing everything.”

“You could’ve asked someone else.”

“No. You’re the only one I know of that’s gone through similar. And you're smart." Yixing waits for an _and you're the best I love you_ but instead comes, "And also, I’ve been feeling this way for almost a _year,_ so you can’t complain.”

“Yes, I can." Yixing replies when Kyungsoo doesn't say he loves him. "I’m doing it right now.”

“You shouldn’t, then.”

“Too bad.”

Silence captures the room, so quiet that Yixing can hear the soft breathing of the guy at the other end of the bed. Is he going to leave or just sit here? He wonders. Either way, Yixing is going to try to go back to bed, but he's not so sure it’s going to work. Anxiety has balled in his stomach, slowly permeating throughout the rest of his body. The more and more these thoughts incubate the worse and worse he feels. And here he was, _at last,_ content; happy.

Suddenly, a beep sounds from his wrist. Yixing still flinches, but not as much adrenaline rushes into him. His bracelet lights up as if he had just tapped it, displaying _WELCOME, AGENT LAY_ and the time for a moment before fading to black. Across, Kyungsoo’s has also lit up.

Only a look is needed. The message is tacit.

“Hyung.” Kyungsoo speaks. It sounds almost scripted. “I meant to ask: are you and Junmyeon together?”

Thrown off by the abrupt topic change, Yixing takes a moment to answer. “I thought you already knew.”

Kyungsoo smirks slightly. “I strongly suspected. I just wanted to hear it from you. How long?”

“Like, two days.” Two days in which Yixing hasn’t talked to Junmyeon about who should know. (And kissed another guy, but he’s trying to forget about that).

“That’s it?”

His brows knit, confused. “Um, yes. Why?”

“You guys have been acting like boyfriends for the past month.” Kyungsoo states bluntly, then responding to Yixing’s bewildered look. “What? Is that seriously surprising?”

Yes! It is!

Kyungsoo chuckles. “God, and here I am coming to you because you’re _smart.”_

“That’s offensive.” Yixing complains, “Smart doesn’t mean always understanding social cues– okay, maybe it does– okay, _for your information,_ I knew about it for a long time.”

“Then why did you wait?”

“Because I wanted to be sure.”

 _“Oh.”_ Kyungsoo drawls, condescension dripping from his tone. _“I_ was sure when we had put you in the medical unit after you fainted when you first got here and Junmyeon came out all dreamily and was like, ‘wow, he’s so cute!’”

“Wait–“ Although his boyfriend is not even here Yixing still finds himself blushing. “He... he actually said that?” How long exactly has Junmyeon liked him for?

“No.” His jaw drops as Kyungsoo laughs, “But you should’ve seen your face just now.” He then goes to mimic, _"He– he actually said that?"_

“Fuck you.” Yixing throws the pillow, which subsequently avails regret. “Wait, can I have that back?”

Kyungsoo catches it, then tucking it under his chin as he had. “No. You threw it.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“You’re so immature. Who are you, Baekhyun?”

This wins him the pillow back, and Yixing makes an – immature – act of wiping it off before resettling it between his legs and chest. “Also, speaking of Baekhyun, he got rejected by Chanyeol, and he was crying as if he was genuinely surprised he was rejected. But then I asked and he said he wasn’t. But anyways, that is stuff I am probably not supposed to be sharing. Are you going to do anything about it?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes go big. “Huh? What do you mean am I _going to do anything about it?”_

“I mean, confess feelings to Chanyeol because it is ruled out he doesn’t like Baekhyun and although that doesn’t mean he likes you the only thing holding you back is now yourself and not Baekhyun. And also Chanyeol is bisexual. So it is not the question of his sexuality either. Just yourself.”

“No way.” Kyungsoo shakes his head vigorously and Yixing imagines him when he had hair and the big mess it would make. Kyungsoo’s hair was really thick. No wonder he shaved it.

“Why?” Yixing says instead of _okay, pussy._

“I don’t think he likes me…” Before Yixing can clamor in protest, he continues. “I mean, he does act cute with me, but he does that with everyone, he’s just a really cute and nice person overall… and I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself like Baekhyun. I’m not shameless.”

“That’s not very nice.” He gets a _really?_ look from Kyungsoo. “But these were the same exact thoughts I had with Junmyeon. Because he’s like that, too. You know, I think we have similar taste in people.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know…” Kyungsoo looks down, once again occupying himself with the penguins. “Did you confess? Or did he?”

“Me.” Surprisingly enough.

“Oh… how did you do it? Especially when it’s a…” If Kyungsoo is asking someone like _Yixing the Virgin of All Virgins_ for relationship advice, he _really_ has no other options. Or maybe he’s only a genius in technology and critical thinking and not so much love and crushes and being homosexual.

“We were in this private place. And basically I asked if he could like men in a homosexual manner and he said ‘yes why’ and then I told him I had feelings for him and he said ‘me too’ and then here I am.”

“That sounds too easy.”

“If it’s with someone you like and they like you back,” Yixing once again takes words from that Wise Man. “Then it should be easy.”

“Makes sense.” A few more seconds of contemplation and then Kyungsoo stands up, cracking his knuckles where a stretch would usually be.

“Okay. I’m leaving. Bye.”

“Goodnight to you too,” Yixing sing-songs, earning a harsh glare.

“What?” He says, “I am literally just saying–“

_SLAM!_

“Fine. Be that way.” Yixing mutters, hopping up to lock the door behind him but then realizing Kyungsoo had locked it already. What an angel.

Then, he returns to the task he had been distracted from: sleep. As his body relishes from the still-present warmth of the mattress and his eyes fall closed upon his head hitting the pillow, the fear also returns.

Alone, it hits twice as hard.

There have been sleepless nights before, but not for anything like this. Not for anything where his safety is genuinely questioned, where the only thing that protects him from choking in zero-oxygen space is also the thing that’s deliberately hurting him and keeping secrets. 

Because of Kyungsoo, Yixing is doing something he really knows he shouldn’t be: questioning the system. All of his life, he has gone through systems, which have inevitably helped him, despite their flaws. So, logically, this system shouldn’t be any different. However, he’s in space, where logic doesn’t exist. This system deals with more than just a flaw, an outdated rule, a biased authority: it deals with life and death. How Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao are _dead_ people. Dead late-teenage boys who used to be here, just like him. He had tried to not care so much that they happen to be the same ethnicity, but the destroyed Mandarin bot, RF’s translation… he can’t help but worry. Is he perceived as a threat? Is something he has zero control over something he’ll be punished for? Has the bracelet always been so harsh on particularly him (“Really? I don’t get shocked for those kinds of things…”) because he is suspected? He has been innocent all along!

Until now, where he is doing the suspecting. And how exactly is Yixing supposed to not only question, but accuse a _robot?_ A powerhouse of intelligence and technology that can process billions of terabytes of information in just a couple of seconds? One that could in a few seconds solve a problem that would take Yixing years? How is he supposed to do this without getting caught, and, a petrifying prospect that has become more than apparent: hurt? _Killed?_ His mind still can’t fathom dying, much less being killed, but it doesn’t stop him from being afraid. Nor does it stop him from staying up all night, trying to figure everything out with Logic, a tool not so useful anymore.

For the first night at Exoplanet, Yixing doesn’t sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Sorry for the late upload! My workload has increased significantly and I had to get stuff done before editing this. Yes, everything's technically 'finished', but I want it to be edited to 1) make sure there are no(t as many) plot holes and 2) ensure writing quality <3
> 
> Whenever there will be a late upload I'll always let you guys know on my twitter @ xiutty !
> 
> Also, this chapter is VERY plot heavy, so if you're reading this half asleep but still want to know what's going on the rest of the book I would recommend to reread another time! This is where I'd say the mystery is really starting to be focused on.
> 
> Anyway, if I made any information here actually intelligible, what are your thoughts on it all? So much fact but also theory and speculation was thrown into the mix; what do you believe?
> 
> Until next week~ <3<3<3


	32. Diffused Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing receives a surprise confrontation.

**"GOSH,** did you not sleep or something?” Junmyeon’s adam’s apple bobs slightly as he talks, but it’s barely noticeable. It is only from this angle, where Yixing can also see the veins on Junmyeon’s pale wrists supporting typing hands. The desk amplifies the noise, exacerbating his already loud technique. Keep in mind the keyboard is completely flat.

“Exactly.” Timely, another yawn falls upon Yixing. Junmyeon’s head angles down to him. When their eyes meet, he smiles, and the hands come off of the keyboard to occupy his hair.

“You’re so cute.” Junmyeon coos and Yixing’s heart clenches. Cute? _He’s_ cute? That’s different, but nice.

“I am going to fall asleep, so you should get that done instead of petting me.” Yixing kindly suggests, getting a _yeah, right,_ nod and a refocused Junmyeon. It’s a stocks report, he said. He did continue to elaborate on what exactly a stocks report was, but that’s where Yixing had stopped listening. No wonder Junmyeon is taking all the distractions he can get.

“Why didn’t you sleep, though?”

“It’s normal. It’s just stress.” He attempts at stifling the emotional burden with a half-truth. Yes, it is stress, but it’s definitely not normal.

After tossing and turning all night, because why can't he figure out why they're wrong and everything is just a coincidence?, six in the morning was when Yixing gave up. Because he knew he’d have a morning session with Minseok anyway, he decided to just get it over with. Maybe then he would sleep. So, he woke up his trainer (“Yixing? Why the hell are you banging on my door so loud?” “Oh, so now you _want_ to train?”) and endured a couple hours of machine exercise. Perhaps Minseok hadn’t gotten much sleep either, because the whole morning he was grumpy and making snide remarks about how ‘Sehun wouldn’t be so ungrateful’ or ‘Jongin would keep going’. Referencing his two superior students made no effect, though, so he eventually stopped. Yixing was slow the whole time because his fatigue _then_ started to kick in and his mind was somewhere else.

After getting out (he’s only doing half a day from now on– _with_ days off) and grabbing some authentic non-space-foam food, Yixing took about an hour shower. When it got to the point that the room was so steamy he was sure he’d faint, he got out and headed to his dorm for sleep. Now that it was daytime and, although that didn’t exactly change the lighting, everybody was awake, he felt more normal. As if last night was just a bad dream that had left him exhausted.

On the way to his room, two things happened: one, something new popped up on his schedule, but before he could read it two happened and around the corner came Junmyeon. Once finding out that he was going somewhere with a nice couch, Yixing forgot about One and decided to follow, figuring he could sleep there. 

It’s much more preferable to be here, head on his boyfriend’s lap, than his room, alone. In fact, being with Junmyeon alleviates the anxiety of what he and Kyungsoo talked about so much that he’s almost in a good headspace. The fantastical reality tugs the petrifying one off its high ground, bringing his mindset somewhere in the middle, where he is content but everything seems fake. But it’s still better, so he is going to stay here for as long as he can and ignore what’s wrong.

“What’s wrong?” 

Yixing’s eyes flutter open yet again, meeting a worried expression on Junmyeon’s face. Brows slightly lifted, eyes widened a little, and lips slightly parted. When he looks down, strands of black hair fall, poking his eyebrows. He doesn’t want to lie to someone as beautiful (among everything else, of course) as this, but in no way does he want to worry him; even if Junmyeon is the leader. He remembers how bad he felt when he had snapped at him and he doesn’t want to ever give any negativity again, no matter the type.

“Yixing?” The concern grows.

“Sorry,” He says quickly, blinking a couple times. “I was zoned out. Hi.”

“Hi,” Junmyeon breaks into a smile. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m tired.” 

“Yeah, but you said stressed. Why are you stressed? Is something going on? Am I doing something wrong?”

“Oh my god, _no,”_ How stupid is this guy?! How dare he think that! “it’s nothing to do with you, idiot. I just meant, my body is stressed. Training, and all that. Minseok hasn’t been particularly nice recently.”

“Oh, okay.” It’s worryingly easy to lie to Junmyeon just as it is worryingly easy for Yixing to go back on what he vowed– to never lie to him again. 

_It’s not lying. It’s just withholding of truth. If they’re two different charges, they’re two different things. Besides, it’s for a good reason._

“Want a massage, then?” A massage sounds very nice. If Junmyeon’s offering, then that means he might have some skill in it. Yixing thinks about it, how it would feel: his fingers in his hair again, a caress against his cheek, the knots in his shoulders loosening, maybe he’d intertwine their hands, hands, hands on his body, relieving his sore abdomen, around his hips, maybe a bit lower and accidentally, or, even better, ‘accidentally’ brushing against his–

 _“No thank you.”_ Yixing says a little bit too quickly, shoving those thoughts away. Those are for the shower. And maybe his super cool new amazing independent dorm. “Get back to work.”

“Alright...” Sounds reluctant as Junmyeon’s eyes tear away from him, now reflecting the bright screen. 

“Wait, no.” Before he sleeps, Yixing wants to get a question answered. Relieve one thing of his (now) countless unknowns. “Question.”

“Yes?” Junmyeon looks more than happy to be distracted again.

“Who are we going to, like, _tell?”_ He asks. “I am not keen on doing something like bringing everyone to the dinner table and announcing we are in a relationship, but just in case someone asks I didn't know if you wanted to keep it quiet for a little bit. If you did, then I’m sorry because I already told Kyungsoo. Or, more like he asked and I said yes.”

“Slow down,” Junmyeon chuckles although Yixing is pretty much done with his statements. “Um… I don’t mind. That’s a good idea. Just let people find out by themselves, so it’s diffused chaos. Not make a big thing about it.”

“What was everyone’s reaction to Jongdae and Minseok?” 

At this, Junmyeon hesitates. It’s bad news, isn’t it? “Well... it wasn’t like anyone was against it. But there’s a lot of teasing. Not because anyone’s homophobic or anything, but just because, well, you know everybody.”

Someone immediately pops up in Yixing’s mind. _“Baekhyun._ We can tell everyone but Baekhyun. He’ll find out eventually, but still: everyone but Baekhyun. But also, do you think part of the teasing was just because of how much Jongdae likes to display his love? Like, a _lot."_

Junmyeon glances at him with a smirk, looking him up and down and staring at the one hand Yixing had subconsciously grabbed.

 _“Sure,_ Yixing. How much he likes to display his love.”

“Fine.” Yixing has the pettiness to sit up, letting go of his hand and scooting against the opposite arm of the couch. A wave of vertigo washes through him. “I meant his, their, not to be rude but, _enthusiasm._ Overenthusiasm. PDA. I can get a thesaurus if you’d like.”

“No, I get what you mean. And I guess, somewhat. But that was kind of a retaliation to everyone’s teasing at first. Now it’s just the norm.” He then opens himself up, putting his closest arm on the couch’s back. “Now come back. My lap is cold.”

“I’d think you’d generate enough body heat to last thirty seconds.” Yixing says as he lays back down, fatigue flattening him right away. He sinks into the couch and Junmyeon like quicksand.

“Surprisingly–“ 

_“Shh!_ I’m trying to sleep.” Although his eyes are now closed, he knows there’s an indignant look on Junmyeon’s face, words of protest waiting to come out of an agape mouth. However, all that comes out is a mumbled _Fine_ and the resume of typing. Maybe it’s loud, but it’s comforting. It lets him know that somebody is there; something other than solitude– a foundation, sort of. It helps compensate for the foundation Yixing thought he had. 

The last thing he perceives consciously is it stopping, and then hands in his hair again and Junmyeon, why aren’t you working? and then nothing.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

So much for diffused chaos.

Yixing wakes up alone. Or so he thinks. The warmth of Junmyeon’s thighs he had fallen asleep on is gone, his body now only heated by its own radiation. He first sees the ceiling, the fan that was previously on now off, the red wires that weave through it dim but still glowing. A distant exhaustion weighs him as he pulls his wrist to his face, arm tingling as he reads the time: _22:32:18EXT._

So he slept for around eight hours, because he knows he had come here at around one or two after ending training with Minseok at eleven or twelve. Yixing yawns, sitting up and scratching his head. Despite sleeping as still as a rock, his hair is now all messy. He can feel that one stubborn strand making it’s usual ninety-degree angle. 

All of the sudden, there’s a deepish voice. “It’s alive.”

Then, a scream. _“My sweet Virgin!”_

A heart attack ensues as Yixing looks up _just_ in time to catch a lunatic Baekhyun, who pounces on him and starts smooching wet kisses all over him like an excited dog. He catches a glimpse of Sehun, who’s leaning on the arm of the couch watching the scene unfold.

 _“Get!”_ Yixing yells between panicked breaths and wrestling, _“Off!”_ He manages a kick to Baekhyun’s chest, which sends him back into the other side of the couch. Before he can come back, Yixing throws two defensive hands up. Wide eyed, he tries to take a moment to calm his erratic heart and adrenaline shot veins, but there’s immediately more shouting.

“Yixing!” Baekhyun looks ecstatic. Yixing is terrified. “I’m so happy for you! Oh my god! Girl, you _rock the world!_ Ow–! _Sehun!_ Don’t flick me, you little bitch.”

“Too bad.” Sehun earns a smack on the arm, which he kindly returns to the head. Then, he looks to Yixing. It may just be his face, but he looks kind of angry right now (said everyone _ever)._

“You’re dating my Hyung.”

Oh.

“You’re no longer a relationship virgin!” Baekhyun grins widely, putting two thumbs up. “Oh my god, but, like, tell us _all_ about it! Who asked who? When? Where? Were you nervous?” He’s getting closer and closer and Yixing isn’t sure how far he can back up into the couch before either it or he breaks. “Have y’all kissed? Or wait, _O-M-G_ , is this a strictly business relationship because Junmyeon’s the CEO in need of a date to the dinner party and you’re just the poor new assistant trying to make a living in a cold harsh world and so y’all agree to a fake relationship for a couple hours but then you end up having sex and then eventually fall in love except it’s all almost ruined by the CEO’s crazy ex-girlfriend until someone murders her?”

 _This. This_ is why he didn’t want Baekhyun knowing.

“You watch too many dramas.” Sehun thrusts an arm between the small space of mercy Baekhyun has left Yixing’s face, using the same limb to shove Baekhyun back. He then, instead of letting Yixing free to breathe like any rational person would, occupies the space himself.

“As he was _trying_ to say,” Sehun throws an acute look backwards, “tell us about it.”

Why does this sound like a threat? Why does Yixing feel suddenly threatened? 

“Uh–“ He _just_ woke up. He really isn’t in the mood for this. Not that he would ever be, but especially not right now. Who the hell told them? Had Junmyeon given in to interrogation? Yixing could see that happening, but where would they get the idea that they were dating? 

“Yes.”

Sehun looks at him as if he’s the stupidest person in the universe. “Yes _what?”_

“I am. Can you– um, back up a little.” Yixing is tired of having his back arched over the side of the couch. With a moment of contemplation, Sehun scoots back, giving him enough room to at least sit down. Not enough to be saved from his glare, though.

When Baekhyun’s head pops up on Sehun’s shoulder, now the both of them staring at him as if he’s an alien, Yixing knows he’s expected to talk.

“So we are dating.” He begins with the obvious. “And no, it’s not a strictly business relationship because of whatever you said. And it began a couple days ago, so I have no idea how you guys know. I told him that I liked him and he said he liked me too and now here we are. Here I am. Being assaulted.”

Sehun and Baekhyun exchange a squinty look, and the latter whispers something in Sehun’s ear that makes his eyes widen. Weirdly enough, Yixing doesn’t hear a single bit of it, despite the suffocating proximity.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.” Baekhyun says in a flowery manner. “Also, Kyungsoo told us.”

Yixing blanches. _“What?”_

Baekhyun snorts. “Yeah. At dinner we were shit-talking you cause you were the only one not there and then Kyungsoo started asking Junmyeon a bunch of weird questions and then told us.”

 _Really?_ Yixing’s mind goes, ignoring the part where Baekhyun said they shit-talked him and focusing on the part where Kyungsoo had told everyone. He feels a bit betrayed, but what explanation could there be other than Junmyeon was forced into admitting? And even so, how would Baekhyun and Sehun have gotten the hint that they even were dating? And if Baekhyun were lying, why would he throw Kyungsoo under the bus with Sehun nodding along in agreement?

“Awe, didn’t expect that, did ya?” Baekhyun sing-songs, ridiculing his misery. As always.

“Wait, so _you_ asked him out, right?” Sehun says.

“Yes. Why?”

“Well, are you sure he didn’t just say yes because he’s too nice to say no?” Yes, Yixing is sure, but the way Sehun is looking at him almost makes him think otherwise.

“Yes. I’m sure.” 

Sehun's eyes narrow, intimidating face drawing a bit closer. “Alright... you seem very… _confident…”_ His voice is laced with suspicion as he stares at him for a couple uncomfortable moments, then leaning back.

 _“What?”_ Yixing snaps, pugnaciousness getting the better of him. “You’re clearly wanting to say something else by your tone of voice and how you're looking at me. _What_ is it, Sehun?”

The poker face doesn’t go away, but Sehun does say, “You better treat him good. Right.”

“I _will.”_ He replies just as pointedly, a bit offended that Sehun would think otherwise of him. However, it does make sense. To Sehun, he’s probably just the emotionless elder, unlike Baekhyun who he has fought, Minseok who he has cried in front of, or Junmyeon who he is currently in a relationship with. 

Baekhyun cuts the tension. “Kay, cool, boring stuff over.” He wrenches in between Sehun and the table, a fight for space ensuing for a couple moments before the younger relents, falling off of the back of the furniture with a _thud!_

“Now, let’s get _interesting.”_ Yixing’s chin is suddenly grabbed and angled from Sehun who made a rather loud crash to Baekhyun’s winning smile.

“Okay, so I’m guessing since you’re both timid virgins that you haven’t even, like, _kissed._ Am I right?”

Yixing’s jaw drops in mortal offense. He’s right, yes... but did he have to put it _that_ way?

“Yeah…” But it’s been _two days!_

“This is a judgement free zone.” Baekhyun, for a moment, comforts him. However, he then points to his head. “I’ll keep it all in here. Don’t worry. _Anyway,_ step one is the kissing. Usually, you don’t have sex just then, but I could be wrong. I have been wrong.”

“Baekhyun-hyung!” Sehun has finally gotten up, now seating himself on the table. “That stuff’s private, don’t you think?”

In response, Baekhyun snorts. “No. It’s totally normal. You’re just scared of sex cause you’re like twelve. But you’ll understand, someday.”

Yixing watches Sehun’s expression closely, but all he really gathers is: Sehun eyebrows, Sehun eyebrows, Sehun eyebrows, Sehun talking.

“I’m not even a virgin, thank you very much.” 

At this, Baekhyun scoffs, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, right. And who’d you do it with, kid?”

“My girlfriend.”

“Dogs don’t count, Sehun.” 

Yixing blinks dumbly. He knows Sehun had a dog but… is there something he is missing…? 

“Okay, first of all, Vivi is a _boy.”_ Now Sehun finally has an expression: repulsion. His eyebrows push low on bulging eyes, mouth half-open in shock. Maybe not the nicest expression, but one nonetheless. “And second–“

“Then why is he named _Vivi?_ That’s _clearly_ a girl’s name.” 

“It’s not just a girl’s name. And it’s cute.” 

“Eh. Sounds like _peepee… Vivi. Peepee._ See my point?”

“No. It literally doesn’t.”

_“Peepee.”_

“Shut up.”

 _“Peepee!”_ Baekhyun turns to the youngest, pinning him on the desk between his arms. _“Peepee peepee pee–!“_

“You know what?” Sehun kicks Baekhyun’s chest, scooting back off the table. “I hate you guys. I’m leaving.”

“What?” Yixing’s jaw drops in indignance. “I didn’t even do anything!” 

“You’re dating Junmyeon.” 

Okay. Fair. He _is_ doing that. But that’s no reason to–

_SLAM!_

Silence for a couple moments. 

“Kay, cool. Brat’s gone. _Now,”_ Yixing is suddenly scared again. “onto _you_. Kay, so like I said, usually it’s just kissing, but if the kiss is real good and if y’all are in the mood and the setting is appropriate, you might also go further. I mean, judging off of _you_ and _Junmyeon_ , it’ll probably be years before anyone slips a hand down anyone’s pants, but–“

“I don’t need advice on my sex life, _thank you very much.”_ Yixing scoffs, getting up over the back of the couch. He should get going, anyway. He should probably find Kyungsoo. What time is it, ten PM? 

However, something stops him at the door. Not Baekhyun’s whining protest, but more like Yixing’s subconscious yelling at him because he’s putting pride before necessity. If he’s being honest with himself, he should be taking as much advice from Baekhyun as he can get. Of course, with a grain of salt, but taking it nonetheless. If the relationship continues like this, they're bound to do sex stuff sometime, and he has a feeling Junmyeon is also quite the big virgin.

He turns, wordlessly walking back to the couch and returning to his spot on the end. For some reason, Baekhyun just smiles impishly, not saying anything.

“So how do you… kiss…” Never in his nineteen years did Zhang Yixing ever think he would be asking someone other than reddit this question. And even so, he never asked with the intent that he was actually going to _kiss_ someone. 

“Okay, so obviously it’s subject to who you’re with and stuff, but let me break it down for you.” Somehow, Baekhyun makes him feel totally comfortable with the situation. Even though sex isn’t anything strange, everyone has always made him feel like he should be ashamed of it– hence his shock at Baekhyun’s promiscuous personality (PP for short). But now is where it shines; Baekhyun’s genuine, speaking with eloquence on the subject. 

“So obviously, it’s putting your lips to somebody else’s. And I know it sounds like it might be a bit gross, but there are all these chemicals in your body that spike up when you’re kissed, and your lips also have a lot of nerves. Like your dick. If the kiss is good, then it’ll feel amazing– not like an orgasm, a different kind of good. You’ll have to try it to feel it.” Yixing recalls that brief nice sensation he had when kissing the guy in front of him. So with Junmyeon it’ll feel like that, but ten times better, and one hundred times better if one of them happens to be a good kisser (he’s hoping on Junmyeon).

“So your first kiss: here’s what you need to know. One, the _signals_. You need to know the body language, and whether the– well, Junmyeon,” Yixing’s blushing for some reason, “wants to kiss you or not. Look out for things like eye contact, but really dreamy, almost sultry eye contact. Lips parting, any kind of lingering touches. But the biggest indicator is if they’re leaning in. So with this,” 

Suddenly, Baekhyun’s face is right in front of his. Yixing’s eyes widen, afraid for a second that he’s going to try it out with him and that’s _not_ what he signed up for!

“Chill,” The man in front of him giggles, “god, I forget how skittish virgins are. Anyway, you see how our faces are aligned?” Yixing abashedly gets closer, then seeing it. “Yeah, that means if I lean forward, we’ll basically crash. So you have to tilt your head at an angle if you want to capture his lips the best.” Baekhyun tilts his head, and Yixing does the same, then switching it when he realizes he had gone the same way as him.

“Yeah, like that.” Baekhyun sits back down. “And then eventually, you’ll make contact. You don’t use your tongue right away. Honestly, I’d play it safe and wait until he does it, if it goes more than just a peck. There isn’t a certain way you’re supposed to move your lips, you kind of just go with the flow.”

“What is the flow?” Yixing asks.

“That’s for me to know,” Baekhyun places a hand on his own chest, then putting it on Yixing’s. “And for you to find out.”

“Okay, but what is the flow?”

“Ugh, you can’t let me have my moment, can you?” Yixing just stares. “Apparently not. Okay, the _flow_ is subjective because there isn’t a specific way to kiss. They’re like snowflakes, each one different. That’s what makes kissing so beautiful, the diversity.”

Yixing nods, looking down at the couch and repeating everything he’s saying in his head so he is more likely to remember it. It’s good advice, really. The first time Baekhyun has ever done something positive in his life. 

“Also.” There are suddenly fingers on his chin and he’s forced to look back up. “Most important thing: _never_ ask. I don’t mean kiss without consent, but I mean don’t ask, instead look for the signals I told you about. It’s amazing when it’s something tacit between two people, cause it means you're really connected, and asking just ruins the whole mood.”

 _“That’s_ the most important thing?” Yixing is doubtful.

“Why yes, _virgin_ , it is.” Yixing frowns. “It’s about the feelings, too. You want it to be a good, natural experience. Not something awkward and weird.”

 _But I’m awkward and weird,_ he thinks. But then there’s, _but Junmyeon still likes me for some reason, so maybe that doesn’t really matter._

“Thank you.” He says when Baekhyun seems to be done. “Actually.”

“No problem.” He smiles. There is then a moment of genuine friendship, a pure scene of one bro giving sex advice to another bro. But of course, it’s ruined by none other than the one bro.

“I’m B-B-H, your local sex ed teacher.”

When Yixing just stares at him, he continues. “Yixing-hyung, it’s a joke… you know, from that one meme. The–“

“I know. It just wasn’t funny.” Hence Yixing’s status: not laughing.

“Sounds like _someone’s_ unappreciative.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “I hate virgins.”

“Would you stop making fun of me for that? I’m _nineteen.”_

 _“Uh-huh._ That’s like five years late, sweetheart.”

Yixing balks. “You lost your virginity at _fourteen?”_ Why does he feel like he already knew this?

“The earlier, the better.” Baekhyun says. “That way, you have time to make all those rookie awkward mistakes when you’re still young. And you also get all the pleasure. Fuck that waiting until marriage thing, they’re just scared of their own euphoria.”

He hates to admit it, but Baekhyun does have a point. If someone’s mature enough to take it on, as Yixing definitely was, is, then they should go for it. Perhaps not sex, but at least masturbation. Unless they’re part of some religious thing that prohibits it. God, Yixing would hate to be part of one of those.

“Whatever. Just stop.”

“So someone’s unappreciative _and_ salty.”

 _“Oh my god–_ you told RF that, didn’t you?” Baekhyun’s – proud – grin gives it all away. “Okay, one, I don’t think you’d know because you’ve been here forever or something, but _nobody says that anymore,_ and two, you’re a bad influence. Why are you even telling her all of this?”

“Cause she asks.”

Yixing’s brows raise. “What? She _asks_ you?”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun says like it’s nothing, though to Yixing who hasn't been able to get the robot off his mind it's definitely something. “She wants to learn about human culture and stuff from the perspective of a human themselves, because there’s a lot of information that she can’t get from, like, the _database_ , or whatever.”

This is interesting… he’ll have to tell Kyungsoo this. Unless he already knows, then he'll have to ask Kyungsoo about this. “What does she ask you?”

Baekhyun looks up in thought, “Well, at first, it was basic, like what goes on inside a household and like relationships between people and stuff, and then it went to influence and stuff. She asked a lot about the relationship between technology and people. Also political leaders. Then it went to a lot of slang and connotations and customs people do and that kind of stuff…”

“Was this just one conversation?” Perhaps it’s accessible by the records room, given that tracks everything that has ever happened.

“Nah. We meet regularly.”

_“Regularly?”_

“A couple times a week.” 

_“A couple times a week?”_

“Yeah! Started like a month ago. You can come, if you want.” Baekhyun’s face slowly falters, “Or not, just an offer… why are you asking, anyway?”

Yixing wipes any expression he must have had off his face. “Because whatever you’re telling her it’s making her sassy which includes her being a bitch to me and I don’t like that.” 

“Sounds like a you problem.”

It is. Yixing glances down to his wristband. _23:01:49EXT._

“This is really sudden, for you at least, but I’ve got to get going.” He hops off the back of the couch. “Thank you for the advice.”

“Woah, woah, woah! Where are you going?” Baekhyun calls.

“Me and Kyungsoo planned to meet up.”

“Why?”

“Sleepover.” Though Yixing's not so hopeful in it: how are they to get answers in a place that purposely hides them?

“Woah.” Baekhyun’s mouth makes an ‘O’ shape as if it’s groundbreaking. “Can I come?”

“Sorry, virgins only.” Yixing shrugs passively, though he can't help but smile at the betrayed look on the other’s face before exiting.

It’s kind of sad, he thinks as he looks back at the door. Not that he’s a virgin, but what he’s about to leave. The kind, comfortable place where jokes and grins are exchanged, to reality. The respite of today, of Minseok’s funny (to him, at least) grumbles and Junmyeon’s loving hands and Baekhyun and Sehun’s – although a bit embarrassing and shocking – humorous confrontation, has now come to an end. Only now, as Yixing tears his eyes from the light peeking out of the door’s crack, is it dawning upon him, sending adrenaline into his system as he proceeds into the dark, through the dark. 

Please, let them have misunderstood something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SUPER SUPER LONG AUTHORS NOTE
> 
> Late upload again. I know for sure there will be one next week, so I'll just let y'all know now that chap 33 will be uploaded next Saturday or Sunday ^^
> 
> Sulay fluff and then a chaotic confrontation, a break from last chapter's dystopian mystery I'd say... but, as you could probably tell, we'll be jumping right back into that next chapter! And probably the following 30!
> 
> ––––––
> 
> And, speaking of this, we are at just about the middle of the story!!!
> 
> (Haha… middle? That’s a joke, right? There’s not THAT much left, right? Haha…)
> 
> So, if you’re feeling like a faithful samaritan and are willing to comment and answer some of these to quench my burning curiosity……….: how are you feeling in regards to this fic? Are you still interested? If not, where did you lose interest and why? Or if so, why are you still interested? Is the plot going too slow? Tbh, from here it speeds up a shit ton. I’d say if I had to go back and change anything about this story it would be the pacing lol. Ok but more questions–– what has been your favorite part so far? Least? Any cool moral things u saw? All in all I’m just looking to get some opinions on this. I’m constantly trying to improve my writing and strangers on the internet are like the best thing for that. Pls don't be afraid to comment or anything I love talking with u guys :DDD
> 
> And also speaking of u guys thank y’all so much if you’ve made it here! One of the things I like to do with writing is make ppl happy, so seeing stuff like ppl awaiting this and smiling while reading it makes me feel like I’ve done well. I hope this stupid fic of yixing suffering in sci-fi stuff has brought u entertainment, perhaps a distraction from shitty stuff, and maybe..... I don’t want to overstep……. but MAYBE you’ve laughed once or twice. 
> 
> Ok bye have a nice week <3


	33. Their Last Days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing and Kyungsoo investigate footage of EXO's past.

**WHEN YIXING TURNS** the corner to find Kyungsoo at his dormitory’s door (he figured the lack of articulation of _where and when_ exactly to meet could be solved here– and it is), his friend puts a finger to his lips. The message is tacit. He forgets all about Kyungsoo’s spilling of his relationship once he sees the solemn look on his face; their horrifying suspicion. Yixing glances at his bracelet, giving it a tap. It’s off, like the night previous, but Kyungsoo still wants him to be quiet. He figures there are other surveillance devices in the hallways.

Wordlessly, he follows to the sleepover. Despite the halls, in such a pattern that practically begs one to get lost, Kyungsoo seems to know exactly where he’s going, walking at a slightly brisk pace and making sharp turns. Yixing attempts to keep track of where they are, but he loses it after _right, left, right, right, straight, straight, cube, wait, this isn’t the cube– wait, where did we just– okay, I give up._

It’s about ten minutes (or thirty or two, Yixing doesn’t have a very good sense of time when he had always been able to just check his phone) before Kyungsoo stops in the middle of a narrow hallway. The door of the room is already open, and upon entering Yixing realizes that this is the records room; the one with all the cameras.

He can see the time _(23:48:16EXT)_ at the corner of each window, displaying hallways devoid of life. Looking around, Yixing also notices that several of the windows, most of which he remembers are the ones for Exoplanet, are black. How does Kyungsoo do it?

After the _whoosh_ of the door closing, there’s his voice: “Okay, you’re good.”

“How do you…” Yixing trails off while staring at the dead cameras. He has already asked that and he couldn’t understand the answer. “Never mind. I’m just amazed. You have my admiration.”

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo grunts not very thankfully.

The sounds of clicks and typing draws Yixing away from the monitoring and he heads over to Kyungsoo who’s hunched over a crude computer– one of those large box ones. Despite the rudimentary appearance, though, the screen itself looks as high-tec as everything else, making a weird combination. He watches over his shoulder as Kyungsoo scrolls up through folders, each named what looks like a date. However, if they are dates, then the years are a bit strange, because they're only numbers one through four.

Eventually, Kyungsoo stops on 11-09-2.

Clicking into that brings up a long folder of files, except this time they’re all tagged with _mp4_ and titled sequences of numbers he can’t make a pattern out of.

“This is the footage for each camera for this day?” Yixing clarifies his hunch.

“Yes. Each is twenty four hours, so it’s a lot.” Kyungsoo answers. He seems to know this pretty well, because he scrolls right to _278491649.mp4_ and clicks onto it.

Another window pops up, showing a room. Yixing quickly recognizes this as the kitchen on the ship; it looks the exact same as now. The room is completely empty, so Kyungsoo drags the playhead until there’s a figure.

In comes Sehun, followed by someone Yixing can’t quite recognize yet.

Wait, no. Can’t recognize at all.

Leaning in closer, he studies this stranger. He’s wearing a black turtleneck and grey sweatpants, not anything out of the ordinary of EXO’s fashion. He’s tall and skinny, just like Sehun next to him. His dust coloured hair is also shortish, like Sehun’s, but long enough to be gelled back. 

“Zitao.” Kyungsoo says.

Sehun takes a seat at the island while Zitao goes to the kitchen, reaching up into the cabinet overhanging the stove to grab something– hot cheetos, (of _course),_ and toss them onto the table. As he’s reaching for the cheetos, Yixing catches a glimpse of his face. It’s angular and his eyes are very sharp and accentuated on the bottom with something like bags. Is he tired?

When a small hum comes from the computer, Kyungsoo presses a button, and then conversation can be heard.

_“–Went out and yelled at him,”_ Sehun is saying, and maybe it's just the audio but his voice sounds a bit higher than it does now, _“but he just yelled at me with that ‘you’re young shut up’ bullshit and continued. Like, is that his only excuse?”_

Zitao shrugs, pulling up a chair next to Sehun and helping himself to the snack. _“I slept through all of that.”_ So maybe he’s not tired. Maybe it’s just his face. Like with Sehun and his perpetually annoyed expression. _“But did you try asking nicely?”_ He has a very thick accent that reminds Yixing of himself when he had first moved to Korea.

_“Well...”_ Sehun trails with the guilt of a person who definitely did not ask nicely, _“not exactly… I kind of swore at him.”_

_“Sehunnie!”_ Zitao flicks a hot cheeto at his face, which causes a smile– Sehun _smiles._

_“What?”_ He giggles, picking it up. _“You would’ve–“_

Suddenly, as if an abrupt interruption to a movie, the scene pauses.

“Not important…” Kyungsoo starts dragging the playhead again.

In fast motion, Yixing sees the whole day in the kitchen. Several come and go, each having the same appearance except for Chanyeol who has red hair and Sehun who has even shorter hair and and Kyungsoo who has hair in general, but Yixing was here for the last one. When Junmyeon comes in, Kyungsoo nudges him, then stopping to let it play at normal speed.

“I never asked…” Yixing mutters, but still watches closely anyway. Junmyeon’s wearing comfortable clothes, the black t-shirt of which he recognizes. He doesn’t look any different from now. Just as drop dead gorgeous. He’s rummaging through the fridge, humming something and taking a rather long time before there’s talking.

_“What're you looking for?”_ Says a deep voice; but it’s definitely not Chanyeol’s nor Sehun’s. Is this Luhan? Yifan?

_“Oh–!”_ Junmyeon startles, which results in him smacking his head off of the shelf above and a bunch of cabbages rolling onto him. The two in current time share a laugh as they watch the poor Junmyeon hurriedly pick them up and place them on the table. They don’t have any wrapping on them. Wonder who ate them after.

The mystery person is laughing with them as he comes on screen. Yixing is able to tell who it is when he and Junmyeon are standing next to each other: it’s Yifan, who Junmyeon wasn’t exaggerating about when he said he was tall. Junmyeon is just up to his chin. Like Sehun, he also has an intimidating look to his face, but it’s thrown off by the blonde manbun. 

“Yifan.” Kyungsoo says though he doesn't need to. _I know._

Yifan is about to say something when Kyungsoo suddenly starts skipping again, leaving what happened _(who_ ate the cabbages without knowing they were on the floor?!) for Yixing to never know. He goes a bit more haphazardly through the rest of the day, stopping when Yifan and Zitao are in the room at the same time.

“I want to watch their interactions on the days before their deaths to see if I can find anything.” Kyungsoo finally explains. 

“About RF having part in their death?” Yixing clarifies.

“Yes. And if there’s nothing, we can go look to when CF was destroyed. And then try to make something out of all of this information. Given we actually find stuff."

“Okay,” That sounds like a good plan. “Also, I don’t know if this is important or not, but I was talking to Baekhyun and he told me that RF asks him questions routinely.”

“What?” By the way Kyungsoo looks at him it must be not only important, but news to him.

Hence Yixing explains, “He said they meet a couple times a week and she asks him things that have to do with human culture. But what really caught my attention was him mentioning being asked about ‘the relationship between technology and people’. Maybe it’d have something to do with all of this.” 

“Maybe…” Kyungsoo nods, “Did he mention what room they meet in?”

“No. Why?”

“Well, I was thinking we could watch it here.” A gesture to the wall of cameras, “But considering RF doesn’t monitor her room, and it’s likely it’s there, maybe there isn’t. Could you just go with him, next time?”

Yixing blinks dumbly. “What? _Me?”_

Kyungsoo's eyes narrow. “Who else?”

There’s hesitance, because Yixing is already nervous around RF _without_ investigating her– but if he’s doing this, then he can do that too. If Yixing understood Baekhyun correctly and RF does actually inquire him for authentic information, then there is a reason she wants it. Technology only functions for purpose. 

“Alright.” It’ll just be the slightest bit terrifying, but with Baekhyun there maybe it won’t be all that bad.

“Thanks,” Kyungsoo mumbles (again not very thankfully) before looking back to the screen, pressing the play button.

Zitao speaks, _“Hyung, can you just do it? Please. Please with a strawberry on top!”_ He shakes Yifan’s shoulders which makes ripples in the pot of boiling water he's holding.

_“Don’t– do that– while I’m holding this. And it’s ‘cherry’ on top.”_ Yifan slowly turns and sets it onto a piece of cloth on the kitchen island. Zitao has backed away, but now he’s back to entreating him with violent arm tugs like a little kid.

_“Why can’t you?”_ What are they talking about? Yixing wonders. What is Zitao too afraid to do? Also, Junmyeon was right: Zitao really _is_ like a child. The way he’s grabbing on Yifan’s sleeve and pouting; it reminds him of that one time (nightmare) he had a daycare internship. But Zitao is not slobbering or picking his nose or vomiting, so Yixing will reconcile. 

_“Because I don’t want to. Baekhyun-hyung’s… what’s the word…”_ Suddenly, there’s a sound that’s definitely not Korean, but it goes so fast that Yixing’s rusty Mandarin doesn’t pick up on it.

_“He’s_ intimidating.” Yifan translates like a teacher. _“Baekhyun is_ intimidating.”

_“He’s_ intimidating.” Yixing can see what Zitao means. Baekhyun is like that one popular good-looking asshole male predator in the high school movies. _“Even Sehunnie tried talk to– tried to talk to him. So only you can. So you should. You’re the leader.”_

_“No.”_

Zitao takes a deep breath, and Yixing wonders whether he’s–

_“Puuuhhhhllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee–“_

_“Fine!”_ Yifan gives in pretty quickly, hands flying up to cover his ears. Yixing almost finds himself mimicking the action. _“Fine. I will later. I don’t want this to get cold.”_

_“Thank you!”_ Zitao grins, then running out of frame. _“Okay, byebye!”_ Yifan sighs again as he returns to what he was cooking. Pasta?

“What a... handful.” Yixing comments, eyes widening when Yifan shakes his head in perfect timing as if he had said it himself. Then, it’s paused again. They’re currently on hour sixteen.

“Yeah…” Kyungsoo's voice takes a wavering tone. Alarmed, Yixing looks to him. His eyes are glossy and Yixing’s not so sure it’s from the bright screen.

“Can you…” Kyungsoo gets up, then turning the chair towards him. “Take it from here. It’s a bit harder than I thought.”

“Yes.” Yixing immediately takes a seat, familiarizing himself with the keyboard and mouse. He skips through the next eight hours, not finding anything except for someone entering the room at _23:59:58._

“Luhan always got food at midnight for some reason,” Kyungsoo explains when the recording stops just where Yixing can make out a person. There’s the back of a blonde head and a blanket wrapped around a short figure. All three of them are relatively blonde. Yixing wonders what he’d look like blonde. Wouldn’t he have to dye his eyebrows too?

“Which one do I look through?" Yixing asks once he has stopped thinking about hair color and clicked out of the video. He squints at the screen, trying to count how many there are but loses count so he looks to the wall of screens for a visual. The wall that's about one and a half times his height with screens the size of small books covering every single inch. 

It’s a _lot._

“All.” Kyungsoo insists. “We don’t have to leisure at every one, just skip fast through it and if you see them just watch what they do, especially if they’re with each other. But every single one.”

“And if nothing is found?”

“Go through the next day.”

Yixing looks to him, incredulous. Yet Kyungsoo’s expression is as serious as ever. Also, he had gotten a chair. How hadn’t Yixing seen that chair?

“I’m almost _positive_ there’s something.” Kyungsoo states, though he quickly loses confidence. “There has to be…”

“I know,” Yixing decides to start at the top, scrolling up and clicking on the first file. It’s an angle of a hallway he kind of recognizes (though that’s not saying much as all the halls look literally the same). Silence engulfs the room all but for the mouse’s soft clicks as Yixing drags the playhead through the whole day. In this recording, there is only Jongin walking somewhere and then back. In the whole twenty-four hours. It takes about thirty seconds to do and perhaps this won’t be so bad. It’s interesting to see what the others were like so long ago, anyway.

Never mind. It gets tedious fast.

Once Yixing reaches the ninth video, which shows yet another obscure hall that only has a couple traversings, he becomes tired of it. For the first few files or so, it was cool to watch these people that he knows go about their day with no real knowledge that they’re being monitored (other than Jongin spotting the camera and waving like an excited child). Especially when Junmyeon comes on and his heart does this thing and then he remembers Kyungsoo is right next to him subsequent to another nudge.

“That’s _just_ Junmyeon, Hyung...”

“No– I saw him– uh, Luhan– somewhere.”

So he resists the urge to stop and watch because he sees Junmyeon every day anyway. And he can always just come back in private and watch. Or, at least, do so until his inner ethical conscience tells him this is too creepy and that’s enough. 

Additionally, Yixing learns something crazy: that when any given member of EXO is alone, they are actually quite mellow. On the cusp of _normal,_ even. It’s as if being with each other is what makes them… _them._ Of course, there are exceptions to this, like Baekhyun who somehow gets into an argument with the dummy in the gymnasium or Luhan who for some reason tries singing into a trash destroyer (and god, the guy can _sing)._ But for the most part, solitude shows a side that Yixing would see in a stranger; just going about their business. 

He also learns a bit more about Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao. Although watching several days worth of 24-hour grouped CCTV footage isn’t the best way to get to know someone, nor the most legal, Yixing nonetheless gets better insight to who they were.

Yifan is rather quiet, but steps up to be the leader when he needs to be. Or, more like, when someone goes ‘Yifan, you’re the leader, say something!’ and then it’s as if he had just realized he is supposed to insert himself into the situation. Hence, he seems to try to avoid conflict. There is a time, in the third day they look through, that he enters the rec room to seemingly read, sees Jongdae and Jongin loading up _Exokart,_ and just turns around and leaves. Yixing can see himself doing that. He doesn’t get what Junmyeon had meant by _very awkward,_ though. Yes, he does see Yifan tripping on things more than occasionally and just staring when someone says something stupid, but those are things Yixing does too!

Wait, does that mean Junmyeon thinks _he_ is awkward?

Luhan, strangely enough, is louder when he is _alone._ Besides the singing-into-the-trash-can thing, he also enjoys talking to himself, which gives Yixing and Kyungsoo a comedic narrative. In front of most of the members, he is quiet, but when in the presence of: Baekhyun, Zitao, or Sehun, and sometimes Yifan, he is the same self that he is with himself, the himself of which reminds Yixing of Baekhyun but without the constant sex talk. He does get what Junmyeon means by there being two sides of him, how he likes to annoy Sehun, and that little subunit with Zitao and Baekhyun. Also on the third day, there is a scene of the triplet terrorizing poor Jongin who was just trying to take a shower. 

“Been there, done that.” Baekhyun whispers after Luhan uses his power to knock the soap out of Jongin’s hand. Zitao leans over to ask what that means and Baekhyun responds with something that makes his eyes bulge like he’s seen a ghost.

Zitao is truly a child. In fact, he’s much like Jongin, take away the super dense part. The only dense part is his innocence, along with his lack of skill in Korean. He must have not been in Korea for long, because he has a very strong accent and doesn’t pick up on a lot of the slang which he has to ask Yifan or Luhan to translate. This seems to often get him into awkward situations (“Okay bros so I was beating my meat and then–“ “Wait, you’re _beating_ meat? Like, a _cow?”_ “Who let him in here?!” and “Shut up Dae, you already know how poor his Korean is.” “Wait, no, I have money. It’s just not here!”), but it’s endearing. Yixing knows he would’ve grown a soft spot for him fast. Kind of like the one for Jongin, except more because Zitao’s not a total idiot, all offense meant.

It feels as if he’s watching a movie rather than the last days of dead people. Though it's a boring movie for the most part, so Yixing often catches himself dozing off and as a result he forgets where he had started and has to begin the whole day over again. Each day holds about one hundred and fifty cameras, ranging from hallways to corners to rooms to bathrooms to stairwells, and some files hold multiple points of view as the camera has multiple lenses. This all gives him a visual (literally) of just how big the ship really is and just how much Yixing does not recognize. It’s like the ocean to him: only a small part explored. However, the newness doesn’t make the process any less tiresome nor any less time consuming. Maybe an hour passes of just silence, clicking, and the occasional sigh. All of this for what, _five_ _days_ , they’re looking through?

When comes a recording where Kyungsoo is talking to Zitao, the other loses his taut composure. Yixing knows he’s crying when he hears sniffs and sharp breaths. He soon pauses and looks over to find him in tears. It’s quite the weird sight, equating to the shock he had from seeing Baekhyun cry. But this time it’s because Kyungsoo is so, rather than conceited and boisterous, stolid and stoic that it’s strange to see him cry. A bit unnerving, too, because if _Kyungsoo’s_ crying that means this is really bad.

“I’m _fine.”_ Kyungsoo says when he sees him staring, voice thick with emotion. “My eyes are just– sweaty, I’m fine. I’ll be alright. I’m okay. Continue. Play it. _Go."_

Normally, Yixing would continue play it go, but this time that ethical conscience from a couple some paragraphs ago steps in and he dares to make a move of sympathy. Without words, because he doesn’t exactly know what to say because Zitao is dead and that’s that, he lifts a tentative hand, placing it on Kyungsoo’s shoulder like the people in the dramas do to their buddy when they’re crying in a soju restaurant. 

Unlike the dramas, though, Kyungsoo doesn’t officially lose it and break down into his shoulder. Instead, he recoils, as if Yixing had slapped a piece of raw meat on him.

_“Don’t.”_ He glares through teary eyes.

Yixing retracts his hand, a bit embarrassed. So this is what happens when he tries to be sympathetic. At least, to Kyungsoo. Nonetheless, he continues the video.

_“Come on~”_ Zitao is urging the statue like Kyungsoo who sits against a wall holding a laptop shut. _“Just let me see~ I always wanted to learn coding. Really! Maybe you can teach me, Hyung!”_

_“No.”_ Kyungsoo slaps a creeping hand off of the laptop, hugging it close to his chest.

_“Why?”_ Zitao pouts, finally stopping his attempts to sneak-grab the device and scooting in front of Kyungsoo. He holds his face in his hands, then shutting his eyes softly and breaking into a grin. _“I’m cute. See? So you should show me.”_

_“I don’t care if you’re cute. I said no.”_

_“Fine.”_ The cutesy expression drops, falling into something teetering a breakdown. _“Then I’ll cry.”_

Kyungsoo looks up at the boy with a glare, but Zitao’s face only saddens more; it’s to the point of realism and Yixing finds himself wondering if he actually will cry. 

Hence, Kyungsoo gives in. _“Okay, fine. But not right now. This laptop isn’t, uhm, ready for teaching. How about later?”_

Zitao beams, _“When is later at?”_

_“Uhm, how about tomorrow?”_

_“Ya!”_ He rolls onto his back, kipping up effortlessly. Yixing’s eyes widen and then he remembers right, he’s a martial arts person. _“See you tomorrow, Hyung. Don’t forget! ...Well, I won’t. So be ready!”_

_“Yep.”_ Kyungsoo sighs into the word as Zitao leaves the room.

Once again, Yixing pauses the video, looking at Kyungsoo who doesn’t seem to have gotten any better. They sit in silence for maybe a minute, Yixing just watching him cry because attempts at comfort have failed, until he gathers himself and says something. 

“We both forgot,” Kyungsoo sniffs. “But– but it’s not like he– was serious anyway– he was just– just being nosy cause I was– hiding it.”

“Hiding what?” Yixing asks. With the logic that if Kyungsoo seems to be feeling this bad relieving a memory in which he did not share this thing, he’s probably going to share it this time.

“Uhm,” Or maybe not. “Well, I don’t do just– just coding and stuff. I also do digital art. Occasionally.”

Yixing nods, patient with the other as he composes himself, wiping his tear-stained hands on his tear-stained shirt.

“And I was drawing, well… _someone.”_ The last part comes out meek and the sadness turns to abashment. He’s talking about Chanyeol, isn’t he?

“Are you a good artist?” Yixing asks. “As in, skilled?” Though if they've been this close and Yixing still didn't know that, Kyungsoo probably doesn't do it often which means he is probably not good.

Kyungsoo looks up, a bit confused on where he’s going with this– as anyone would be. “I guess.”

“Okay.” If he’s good, then it will be worth seeing. “Can I see it? The Chanyeol drawing?”

_“What?_ No.” Kyungsoo sounds offended as if Yixing had personally attacked him. He did just inadvertently tell him it _is_ in fact Chanyeol though.

“Why?” He replies. “I already know you have a crush on him and you said you’re a good artist. What else is there to get embarrassed about?”

Yixing suddenly gets an idea of What Else Is There To Get Embarrassed About as Kyungsoo’s eyes dart away and he remains silent. Something like perhaps the picture isn’t just a nice portrait of the guy. Maybe it’s something else. Or maybe it is just a nice portrait and Kyungsoo is one of those artists who feel self-conscious about themselves even if they are talented. In that case, Kyungsoo is dumb. Or maybe Kyungsoo still has trouble processing homosexuality and showing a drawing of his crush which is a dude is difficult for some reason. Or maybe it's just lost and Kyungsoo has given him the wrong impression. Or maybe–

Nonetheless, he continues the video

Kyungsoo contains his composure for the next ninety-three recordings (AKA skipping through 2,232 hours of footage watching scrupulously for YiLuZi and their interactions). No matter how much he watches, Yixing still can’t get through his head that these were real people, and that they’re now dead. He understands it, obviously, and there’s the _wow, this must really hurt to watch_ , but he does not _feel_ it. He doesn’t find himself sad, nostalgic, nor anything that the man next to him is radiating. It’s rather a sensation not quite apathetic, but definitely not nothing. Like he’s in a room by himself while music plays in the one next to him; only perceptible. It gives a strange sense of recognition to his former nineteen years, when he was surrounded by emotional things that didn’t involve him. (Here, he has been involved _too_ much).

Once his patience runs short, Yixing asks for the time. Kyungsoo reveals that three hours have passed. They aren’t even through five days of footage. He stifles a sigh, then trying to split his mind into a ¼ attentive to the screen and ¾ zoning out into some random topic. It sort of works, as the topic goes to Why Does Jongdae Have A Tampon, to Wow He Hasn’t Seen A Tampon In About Six Years to then others of the sort like What If Sanitary Products Were Paid For By The Government.

If this were true, what would the government have to sacrifice to get it? Would the money come from nowhere, taxes, or would they budget cut on something useless? And even if carried out, this would definitely be met with criticism from the (mostly male) population, because women get that, but what do _they_ get? Free condoms? But women have partial use in the condoms too, not to mention female condoms. Also, are period cramps really _that_ bad? Yixing has seen that there are some that have emergency room worthy cramps (but why would biology do that to them? If it’s a natural process, it shouldn’t be hurting unless it’s an illness), but do some use it as an excuse, perhaps? _Does_ getting hit in the balls hurt more? On this argument, he’s impartial, only with the equally corroborating knowledge that some women literally take _medicine_ for cramps and men have a higher pain tolerance. Only if women could will their period cramps away, like Yixing can – sometimes – will an erection away if he’s in an unfitting situation. Then this argument wouldn't exist.

But, back to the government making sanitary products free: wouldn’t this be virtually impossible considering almost all of the government’s roles consist of men? It's not that all men are cruel and don’t care, but that they haven’t experienced it themselves so they can only imagine what it feels like and sympathy can only go so far.

Hey, that’s kind of like Yixing’s situation right now. 

Anyway, on cramps vs hits of ze nuts, perhaps a peer-reviewed scientific inquiry should be done by–

“Yixing!”

“Huh?” Called snaps back to attention, all visions of that investigation out of his head as fast as they had come in.

“Pause the video! This is like the _fifth_ time– okay, _now_ you have to scroll back,” Kyungsoo is clearly annoyed with the hapless Yixing trying to find what he had passed, but at least he isn’t crying anymore.

“There.”

Yixing stops at a too familiar setting.

Sickly fluorescent lights bring RD_06’s room to life. Unlike the last time, it's nearly spotless. Not empty, but all of the parts and wires and mechanics Yixing had struggled not to trip over are neatly on shelves, compact in boxes that aren’t overflowing. The only part of the conveyor belt he sees from this angle is the end of it, and he can tell that there is nothing for at least the first five feet. On a workshop table sits a solitary Yifan. Of course, Yixing had probably seen this room in the past days, but he hasn’t exactly been paying attention. Plus, it’s different with someone in it.

Millions of questions elicit. Out of all places, why is Yifan _there?_ Is he going to get shocked too? Did RD_06 exist back then? Kyungsoo mentioned encountering it before their deaths, but it was only the plan. Maybe Yifan saw something similar. Was Yifan suspicious of RD_06, too? Did his suspicion lead to his possibly not-mission instigated–

No. Don’t jump to conclusions, Yixing. Reason, instead.

As Yifan doesn’t seem to be doing anything, Yixing speaks, “This is the room. The one I saw RD 06 in, on that conveyer belt back there, and where my bracelet started to burn.”

“Wait– _seriously?”_ Kyungsoo's wet eyes widen.

“Yes.” He can't forget it. (No matter how much he wants to...)

“Yixing-hyung... this is the night before they…”

Suddenly, there is the sound of a door shutting, followed by dialogue. 

_“Jesus–!”_ Yifan then eloquently switches from swearing in Korean to swearing in Mandarin, his scold something like Yixing’s mother as he greets Luhan.

_“Sorry,”_ Luhan replies in the same language as he approaches with a bit of pace, sitting down on a box across from him. _“Zitao is–“_

“Translate, would you?” Kyungsoo pauses the video.

“Oh, yeah. Right.” Yixing nods. He was just distracted with the language. Although both members in his house are fluent, his mother had decided early on to speak only Korean, insisting that it’ll ‘improve his vocabulary’. This got old once he hit eight years. Now, the language is in a very special reserve for Yixing Does Something Bad in Public and Grades.

“Yifan was like, _jesus, finally, what took you so long,_ and Luhan said _sorry_ and something about Zitao.” Getting an idea, Yixing looks around the desk. “Do you just have a piece of paper, or something?”

“No.” Kyungsoo shakes his head. “No papers. No records. Nothing incriminating. Remember _your_ paper?”

“...Right.” This is going to make for a rather difficult translation. “Play it for about ten seconds, then I’ll tell you what they said. And be patient, because I haven’t been speaking regularly since third grade.”

“It’s fine. At least you _can_ speak it.” Kyungsoo dismisses. “You know… this is the exact reason they would’ve destroyed CF. So no one could understand them. But you, now.”

“That almost makes me feel special. Now, play.”

They end up in a process where Kyungsoo plays somewhere around five seconds, stopping when somebody else starts to talk. Yixing wracks his brain for the language he hasn’t used in so long, trying to put the thing he visualizes when he hears _haoba_ into Korean and then speaking this out loud and then another sentence starts. The last time he remembers actually _using_ the language was on reddit asking a question he remembers being too ashamed to ask in Korean (at 14: _if hentai is asian and gay do asian and gay ppl exist?)._ Or the time his mother scolded him out in public for dropping his frozen yogurt (11: blueberry mocha swirl into a stranger's baby carriage, _you good for nothing money-waster! Maybe I’ll just have to make you play sports!)._

“Luhan says Zitao should be here soon, and Yifan complains,” Kyungsoo turns the volume down a couple notches so Yixing’s voice is louder than the ones on camera. “And Luhan says what a–“

Kyungsoo pauses. “Could you take out the ‘he says’ part? I know who’s speaking.”

“Yes, sorry.” Yixing braces his brain as the play button is clicked.

_Click._ “He has been okay, right.” _Click._ _Click._ “Yes, yes, he is okay. Thanks for asking about me.” _Click. Click._ “You know that’s not what I meant.” _Click._ _Click._ “They’re just arguing– wait, actually, go back…”

After about a minute of small conversation and Yixing’s mouth getting dry from talking so much, someone enters. Looking up to the screen (because he found it hard to focus while watching it too), he sees the youngest head over to them. Unlike the Zitao he has gauged from the past days, he does not look very happy-go-lucky sunshine this night. He’s sour-faced in all pajamas while the other two are wearing daytime attire. Said other two begin to speak.

_Click._ “He says hi, how long have you been waiting.” _Click._ _Click._ “Not long.” _Click._ _Click._ “Were you really asleep?” _Click._ _Click._ “What, it’s midnight,” Zitao checks his bracelet. _Click. Click._ “Of course I am asleep. Would be asleep.” _Click._ _Click._ “You’re like eight year old.” _Click. Smack! Click._ “Swear word, Yifan, don’t hit me.” _Click._ _Click._ “What he was trying to say was that he thought you would have stayed up because of what we’re do. Doing.” _Click. Click._ “That's exactly why I slept. And he– I forgot. The last time was like a week ago– the last time of...” _Click. Click._ “Wait, go back, I missed it.”

Kyungsoo pauses, giving his brain a respite. This is harder than he thought. “What are they doing? Like, when you said ‘what we’re doing’, what did they mean by that?”

“I don’t know.” Yixing does agree it’s a bit cryptic too. “Replay it. Might have missed something.”

Kyungsoo replays it and there’s no mistake. It’s literally: _c_ _onsidering what we’re doing._

Yixing shakes his head. “It’s the same. I don’t know why it’s worded like that. Secret, probably.”

“Definitely a secret.” Kyungsoo confirms, “Although they’re bilingual, they never spoke in it other than translating for Zitao. Even when they were alone, as we’ve seen. It has to be important. Translate correctly.”

“Thanks for the support.” Yixing says dryly before the video is continued.

_Click._ “Yeah, but it’s important, thought you would remember. Would have remembered.” _Click._ _Click._ “I have a much of things on my mind, ge– Hyung…” _Click._ _Click._ “Yeah, okay, and I’m, _Beyoncé…?_ Oh. Yeah. Beyoncé. _”_ _Click. Click._ “Shut up.” _Click._ “Oh god, this is long– anyway, I know what we’re going to do. RF has the like, circle? No, RF– no, CF did– you that room, yes no? I mean, right? Kyungsoo, pause it, for fuck’s– same occupation? Operation– _fuck…“_

Yixing’s brain fries and Kyungsoo gives him a strange look. Yixing doesn’t look back and just slowly leans forward until his forehead touches the cool metal of the desk. He lets out a deep breath, wishing that it could expel all of the chaos in his head too.

“Moment.” He mutters, bringing his hands up to his temples. Not only are the sounds so old they’re almost foreign, but the vocabulary is also quite different. Considering they’re teenage boys (and not fifty year old women) that have clearly been speaking past third grade, Yixing is far too slow and is practically guessing some of the words from context. He doesn’t say this to Kyungsoo, though, because that’d just cause unnecessary worry. Yixing still understands what they’re saying for the most part.

“It’s alright. I know how you feel. I speak English. Or, at least, I thought I did, until I went to America for a robotics camp.”

Too tired to process that and come up with a _wow, really?_ Yixing just sits there until he feels a little bit better. It’s about a minute later that he reluctantly sits up, combing his hair back.

“Just replay that whole statement.”

_Click. Click._ “Oh, I got it now. It’s: anyway, I know what we’re going to do. RF has the same, um, either… _oh,_ the incubator thing. That’s what they’re talking about. RF has the same incubator thing as CF and let’s do same operation. But there will not be a fight because there are tools.” 

Kyungsoo’s eyes are slightly widened as he pieces together the fragmented sentences. Yixing first chooses which language to review what he had just blindly translated in (Korean) and then he realizes it too.

“I knew it.” Kyungsoo mumbles, looking to the screen. “They did it. They did it when CF was in rest. I think. Alright.”

Yixing can’t reply before _Click._ _Click_. “Or at least not as big of a fight. I don’t know what the last word is. I think it means _look_ or something.” He reasons everything out. “So when they destroyed the CF bot they did it without anything but their powers most likely, and now they want to destroy RF like CF but with the help of the stuff in that room.”

“Sounds about right.” Kyungsoo nods even though he literally has zero idea what they are saying, “But I’m wondering why. Why they destroyed CF and want to destroy RF. I bet it’s because of suspicion, like us, but they must have had a lot more solid evidence and things established that we still… don’t know.”

Secrets. Ones that died with them. Ones they’re now trying to unbury.

“Play it. Before my brain stops working.”

_Click._

_Click._ “When, though?” _Click._ _Click._ “Tonight, Zitao. Why else do you think we’re here.” _Click._ _Click._ “A sleepover?” At this, Yixing gives a weary glance to Kyungsoo, but then he realizes he’s the only one who gets the context.

So, he gets a weird look. “What?” 

“Nothing, sorry. Continue.”

_Click._ _Click._ “Zitao mumbling something I can’t tell…” _Click._ They both perk up as Luhan rises, sauntering through the boxes, fingers dragging along the tools. _Click._ “What exactly are we supposed to use. I mean use?” _Click._ Yifan gets up and joins him rummaging through the boxes. _Click._ “Something that would be of use when fighting CF. No, would _’ve_ been of use when fighting CF…” _Click._ _Click._ “Something like this?” _Click._ Zitao is lifting a nut so small the camera doesn’t catch it. Yifan gives a blank stare while Luhan rolls his eyes, _Click._ “...No, _imbecile,_ I can’t even see that from here. Oh, me neither…” _Click._ _Click._ “What about this?” Zitao is now holding a slightly bigger one. _Click._ “No, what about this, no, okay, you get the point. He’s just being dumb.”

Kyungsoo finds it pretty funny until Luhan decides to say something that makes Zitao throw the nut at him. Then he finds it extremely funny. So does Yixing.

_Click._ “He said,” Yixing gets out between a laugh, “bad insult. It– it doesn’t translate directly, but basically means idiot I think, and then also no one thinks you’re funny. I thought it was funny though.” Kyungsoo smiles at this, nodding in agreement as he continues the video, which now consists of a whining Luhan cowering behind a tall Yifan while a threatening Zitao glares from the other side of the room.

They really were part of EXO: no matter how serious the situation, they’ll still find a way to act like children. 

_Click._ “Luhan says Hyung, he’s like ten. He can’t be treating me like this.” _Click._ _Click._ “Then why don’t you go tell him that.” _Click._ _Click._ “No. You’re the leader.” _Click._ _Click._ “I’m also fed up with you, we need to do something and we need to now. Need to do it now.” _Click._ Luhan lets go of Yifan’s arms, coming out from behind his back and offering Zitao a truce in the form of a handshake. The younger stares at it a little before taking it, all expressions returning to solemnity.

“Wish the people still here would do that…” Kyungsoo mutters and Yixing's not sure whether to laugh.

_Click._ “Hyung, what are we going to do after RF is destroyed.” _Click._ _Click._ “Well, tell everybody. We have to tell everybody all of this stuff that’s been kept secret… And– go back, Kyungsoo…” _Click._ _Click._ _Click._ “And we’ll find a way to go home. Back to earth.” _Click._ _Click._ “We will with the people here and no RF or CF to tell us how?” _Click._ _Click._ “Yes, we will. I bet–“ He hesitates before finishing, “I bet Kyungsoo can figure out how. He’s smart.” However, Yixing must have panicked for nothing. Eyeing to his right, Kyungsoo just smiles slightly. No big reaction. _Click._ _Click._ “And Chanyeol and Junmyeon are smart too.” _Click._ _Click._ “Yeah, but Kyungsoo–“ This time, Yixing completely stops.

_Yeah, but Kyungsoo also told me that the cameras go off at night. That’s why we can even pull this off in the first place._

“What?” Almost instantly Kyungsoo asks, “What about me?”

“Play it again,” Yixing buys himself some time to think. This is the night they die, and, if what Luhan said is true, Kyungsoo is the main cause. He set them up. However, Yixing doesn’t believe that this is some big inception or anything, because 1) Kyungsoo is not currently gaining an evil smile and saying something along the lines of _‘you’ve figured me out, Yixing,’_ and 2) Kyungsoo is a genuine person who makes genuine mistakes. It seems he’s still learning, considering all the precautions they’re taking now versus what the other three had done. But there is also the possibility of 3) Kyungsoo is a really good actor. What should he do? If he translates truthfully, Kyungsoo will feel horrible. He will feel like it is all his fault. It _is,_ but inadvertently. But perhaps he is cognizant of this already?

“Did you get it that time?”

“Yes,” He chokes out, quickly fabricating something. “Said– he said you’re the smartest. But it was an expression that I hadn’t heard in a while.”

“Oh, alright.”

And just like that, Yixing is going to bear that heartbreaking truth until he tells Kyungsoo otherwise. It won’t bother him, though. He’ll probably forget in a week.

He knows this decision was right, especially when the three continue searching through the stuff and Kyungsoo grips at the hair he doesn’t have.

“God, it’s terrible to watch. They’re setting themselves up. There’s so much… they’re being so stupid…” Yixing says nothing at this and just nods in agreement. 

It’s a bit more of idle conversation Yixing doesn’t bother to translate other than “Idle conversation” until they reconsolidate. Yifan holds what Luhan had called useless, except he has a whole package of them. Luhan has two large metal rods and has decided to stick them in the back of his shirt like swords. Zitao holds about five different tools that could be used for ripping something up, but he looks rather conflicted on which one to keep.

Then, they begin to talk. Both Yixing and Kyungsoo snap out of their fatigued daze as they rush to the task. _Click._

After giving Zitao a weird stare (which is returned), Luhan speaks. _Click._ “He says, which one are you going to use.” _Click._ _Click._ “Hyung, that’s not how you have swords. They are supposed to be crossed, so you’re not... pulling it up straight. No… over. Pulling it up straight over…” _Click._ _Click._ “I think you should use that one because it’ll work the quickest. So you won’t have to... stop time for longer? _What?_ Oh, yeah. Stop time for longer.” _Click._ “Now they’re just saying ‘okay’ and ‘so we’re good?’ and stuff…”

Suddenly, there’s a beep.

Simultaneously, the two of them jump, the scare only exacerbated by the fact that they _know_ they’re doing something illicit. Yixing smacks his knee off of the table, pain heightened by the fear. He finds himself panicking right away, breaths shortening as he looks to his bracelet. It’s obviously not a lie, but _what?!_ Why are the bracelets on?! Is he–

But his bracelet is black.

Looking to Kyungsoo's wrist, his bracelet is still off as well. They meet eyes at the same time, then looking to the screen, where Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao’s wrists are lit up in a red light.

“Oh,” Kyungsoo pauses the video. His chest is heaving. He looks back to Yixing, eyes widened with petrified mirth. Out of nervous relief, they both burst out into laughter. It’s not even remotely funny, but all Yixing can do is giggle. As if his body’s response is to laugh to remind himself that he’s okay, he’s going to be fine.

But will he?

Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao weren't.

Laughter dies along with false security. A weary look is exchanged.

_Click._

Bracelets lit and beeping, the three of them put down their supplies, looking at their wrists in confusion. In Korean, Luhan reads out loud:

_“Mission, Agent Han to room one-nine-oh-four immediately.”_

For some reason, it scares Yixing, too. Yifan squints at his bracelet while Luhan continues, but everything is immediately interrupted by a quick speaking Zitao. His eyes are wide as he looks to his elders for reassurance, words slurring with fear. Yixing has Kyungsoo stop the video and replay it twice.

_Click. Click. Click. Click._

“I still can’t tell… He’s panicked. I think… confusion. Panicked confusion. I heard ‘what does this mean’ and ‘mission’ and ‘now’ and ‘never’… Play it again.” _Click. Click._ Yixing shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

Kyungsoo insists they try it a couple more times and then gives up when, after five more listens, Yixing snaps and says that he _just_ _can’t_ tell what he’s saying.

When Kyungsoo acquiesces and resumes, Zitao is gripping onto Yifan’s sleeve. The leader doesn’t hold any fear in his face. Luhan does. 

_Click_. “Yifan says: no, we are fine. There are night missions.” _Click_. _Click_. “They just aren’t common because usually missions are not so urgent.” _Click_. _Click_. “I bet everyone else will be grumpy getting up and going there, too.” _Click_. _Click_. “You promise.” _Click_. _Click_. “I promise.” 

_Oh, wow. That’s heart wrenching,_ Yixing thinks once the words leave his lips.

_Click_. _Click_. “Luhan asks if they should put the weapons down.” _Click_. Luhan receives judgmental glares from the other two, then muttering something Yixing can’t figure out. _Click_. “Something spiteful probably. Can’t tell.”

_Click_. The three return their weapons while Luhan is talking. _Click_. “So what other time are we doing to do this– _going_ to do this.” _Click_. _Click_. “Tomorrow night.” _Click_. _Click_. “After getting rest, right?” _Click_. _Click_. “Of course Zitao. Don’t worry just a little longer…” _Click_. _Click_. “Replay.” _Click_. _Click_. _Click_. “Then we and everyone will be safe and get to return home. Don’t worry. Yifan and I aren’t worried…” _Click_. “Okay.” This is said as the room is exited. 

Just to check, Kyungsoo skips through the final ten minutes of the recording, finding nothing but the empty room. Finally, he clicks out of the video. After the one they had just watched _(843257290.mp4)_ are about twenty more cameras for the day.

This is confirmed when Kyungsoo tries to scroll down, finding that there really are only twenty more files. “...This is where they die. Somewhere here and within the next day. We need to watch the rest of these.”

“Alright.” Yixing takes control, clicking on the video under the last (which takes him about two mistakes to do) and restarting the skipping process. This time, it’s a bathroom.

It’s relief mixed with the slap of reality, because on one hand, this means no more monotonous hours spent fruitlessly, but on the other, this means that they were right. RF _is_ doing something bad. Of course, it’s not absolutely proven yet, as there is no footage of the three being killed by the robot, but _how_ can it be anything else? Why else would they want to destroy CF and RF? And say 'then we and everyone will be safe'?

Unlike the past few hours, Yixing finds himself wide awake as slightly stinging eyes meticulously scan hours of footage. His fatigued brain processes everything at a slower rate, but it definitely doesn’t abate how scared he now is. The only comforting thing is Kyungsoo, next to him just as scared as he is. 

It’s strange what solace merely another person provides.

It's because Kyungsoo is here, going through the same thing he is, that Yixing isn’t having a full-fledged panic attack. If he were discovering this all alone, he doesn’t know where he would be right now. He has always been relatively stoic, yes, but the terms of emotional turmoil back on Earth, and even life here, go nowhere near the lengths of this. Any fortitude is rendered useless in a situation where security is proven to be an illusion.

Kyungsoo is real, though. He may not be as great of a tool as Logic, but his presence certainly helps a whole lot. Of course, Yixing’s not going to say this, because he knows he’ll just get a scoff. Besides, he is pretty sure this is mutually understood. Why else would Kyungsoo be gripping his sleeve? (It happens in this sequence: Yixing’s sleeve is grabbed, Yixing finds the hand, said hand is ripped away and Yixing is glared at, but then Yixing takes the hand again and apparently that time he did it correctly because it stays there and tightens).

The final cameras do not reveal much. Within the last two minutes of the day, there is footage of the three heading to Room 1904 (so had Yixing missed them walking through other hallways?). Nothing that can help them except knowing that they are in fact going to RF’s room. Because of this, they also have to go through the beginning hours of the next day, too. Kyungsoo tells him that they were told the news around nine in the morning, so they decide to go through the first eight hours of footage for each camera, beginning with the mission place: **ROOM_1904.**

This ends up being all they need. The camera is angled to the entrance and it’s about two minutes into the day when the doors slide open, in coming Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao. At this angle, Yixing can’t see RF, but he can make out the familiar shadow of the robot. Upon realizing that they’re the only ones there, Zitao’s face grows terrified, but Yifan and Luhan remain calm.

Suddenly, something happens that has not happened within any of the countless hours of footage they've been through: the screen goes _black._

Only a flash, because in one frame, the three are there, having just entered the room. The next frame, the meeting room is empty, with not even the shadow of RF remaining. Like the rising tension before a jumpscare in a horror movie, Yixing's heartbeat speeds up and chest tightens.

Wordlessly, Kyungsoo pushes his hand off of the mouse. He skips back around ten seconds to verify that it really happened. When nothing changes, he then slowly skips forward. The two of them watch absolutely nothing until 09:19:39EXT when Sehun first enters the room and sits down.

One by one, each member comes in, just like a normal mission. It’s only when RF arrives after there are only eight of them that concerned looks begin to show, and here Kyungsoo stops skipping. He doesn’t play it, though, leaving Yixing with only a snapshot of everything that had happened: the tension that rose in the room the first day they met as eight, with one whispering to another and eyes darting towards the exit, waiting for the other three. The missing ones. Had they slept in late? Minseok and Jongdae hadn’t seen them in the dorms, their exchanged look says. Junmyeon standing up to go get them, maybe. What happened? Where are they?

He’s glad he wasn’t there.

“That’s… all…” Kyungsoo mutters, clicking out of the video. His other hand comes out of Yixing’s and he looks on the verge of tears again.

“…It– it makes sense.” Yixing says gently. “Technically, we still have no concrete proof that RF killed them. And maybe it’s supposed to be that way. We only have proof of the plot holes. Like the burns and the wire– which, by the way, did you happen to bring Yifan’s journal?”

“...No... but I’ll get it to you soon...” Kyungsoo's voice is considerably weaker. Hence, Yixing waits a little before he next speaks.

“So... so we have that, but it’s not like we’re trying to prosecute her… are we? What… what exactly _are_ we trying to do, here?”

“Well, one," Kyungsoo sniffs but his voice gains back confidence, "–prove this.” And that has been done. Now Yixing knows that RF_05 is a robot with something to hide, such to the extent that she has killed three of EXO’s members. “And now…”

“It seemed their plan was to destroy RF as they had CF, and then tell everyone and return to Earth. Clearly, there were things wrong with that.” Yixing tears his eyes from the screen, blinking out some accumulated tears as his vision focuses to Kyungsoo; the darkness surrounding him. “Do you think it has anything to do with RD? They were in the room.”

“Not sure.” Kyungsoo shrugs. “They were in the room, yes, but at the time I don’t think it had anything to do with RD. It was just a spare parts room. This backed up by how I saw only the plans when I encountered it. But out of all the rooms on the ship, that’d be a _very_ big coincidence…”

“But nonetheless, they weren’t careful.” It sounds almost angry, how he says it. Yixing imagines he would be too had he known and loved them. “There were _so_ many things watching them. The cameras, the bracelets. You see, I have that all shut down, temporarily. And destroying CF to speak in Mandarin was a good move, but clearly, from your paper, RF has other resources. Or at least, she has them _now._ The technology here improves itself _extremely_ fast. It’s no wonder they could’ve destroyed CF so easily, around a year ago.”

“What were CF and RF like around a year ago?”

“They weren’t mobile and they had to be transported by bots. Now RF is capable of at least three different modes of travel. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up teleporting soon.”

Oh. How nice.

“How long exactly do we have? Without being caught.” Yixing asks wearily. It has had to be at least a couple hours. At _least_. Time proceeds strangely when he is this tired. The eight hours of sleep prior did virtually nothing. Besides, Junmyeon’s legs and the couch weren’t the best when it came to accommodation.

“Until morning, six sharp. Right now,” Kyungsoo glances to one of the windows. “It’s half past four. So we should hurry this up.”

Those words alone make him feel rushed, any intricate planning he had started to build up immediately toppled. So, out comes a helpless, “What do we do?”

Kyungsoo hesitates, which makes Yixing all the more scared. “I… think we should find out _what_ exactly she’s doing. How this all connects. I think this… this right here tells us that it _does_ all connect, but not in what way. So we still have to find that out.”

“Maybe it’s something that we won’t have to resort to trying to destroy RF over. Maybe they were wrong, as they have been about a lot of things. It’s probably not that bad...”

“Do you _really_ believe that, though?” Kyungsoo’s eyes meet his and Yixing breaks.

“I… hope that?” Why is he denying his belief when reality is what he has prioritized for so long? 

“I highly doubt a robot who had to _abduct_ us and force us against our will to help her out has anything kind in mind. Besides, don’t you see the pattern? Yifan and Luhan and Zitao had found out whatever it is, so she murdered them. She didn’t want me to find out, so she burned me. Same with you. It’s obvious she doesn’t want us to find out, and that almost assures that it’s something bad.”

Yixing looks down, face heating up. Kyungsoo’s right. There are no more straws to grasp at telling Yixing he’s one hundred percent safe here.

“And with your paper, didn’t you say Junmyeon came up with it _right_ after you were burned by RD?” At this point, Kyungsoo sounds a bit annoyed. “And with the wire, RF coming _right_ when we started to question it. And also, about that, she had done something to my work. It wasn’t Jongin. I was supposed to be filing things and I had finished and just told Jongin to upload it, so even if he didn’t, all of my progress shouldn’t have been _reset_. But it was. And I wouldn’t be surprised if she did something with Junmyeon’s scheduling.”

“…I don’t know.” Yixing mumbles after Kyungsoo's glare eases, “He did it before we met up. But yeah, I know– I know you’re right…" He picks his voice up. "It’s like when we see something wrong there’s always a distraction to keep us from thinking about it further.” The mental fatigue from the translation really starts to kick in. He again tries to come up with an answer to this all, or, at least, a possible explanation, but nothing comes. Yixing can’t do anything but sigh and bring a hand up to his head.

“It just all scares me. A lot.”

Kyungsoo sighs as well. “Me too.” And this is what’s comforting, instead of _it’ll be okay._

“So we investigate, find out what exactly she is doing, and we will find out be less scared.” Yixing states, but then realizes that's not quite right, “Or absolutely terrified because it's something terrible.”

“Yeah… but it _has_ to be in secret. Everything. I think this room is mostly what we need, because it kind of has all the things that have ever happened. But there’s also an information center– or, rather, a library.”

“There is?” Of course there is, Yixing. There’s probably a pool, too.

“There is. In it there’s information on the technology here. I’ve read a lot of it, but it seems there’s some relooking I’ll have to do.”

“The Tree of Life.” Yixing suddenly says. “Do they have something on that? And RD? And RF? If there was the wire in the Tree, that RF lied to you about, then it’s probable that the Tree of Life is doing something that we shouldn’t know about.”

“Uh, I think so. Except for RD. Tomorrow I’ll go and get everything I can and I’ll bring it here, because what you’re saying makes sense. It’s also especially weird that she came off of the ship this visit. She never does that. And while I’m at that, you can go to one of Baekhyun’s meetings with RF and check out the library for yourself.” 

“Okay.” Yixing’s too tired to argue. Besides, all his argument would really be is _but that’s scary!_

“Also,” Kyungsoo points to his wristband. “I know how to turn these off from the security unit. However, inhibiting them is really simple, in terms of everything here. I think I can copy the process onto a small circuit board, which I can connect into the bracelet to turn it off manually. So I can create a little tool that does it so I don’t have to go through such a big process. It took a lot to get away with this.”

Finally, Yixing asks, “Did you take computer science or something?”

Kyungsoo nods, a small smile spreading his lips and Yixing notices they kind of make a heart. “Yes. I took college classes, among other things, in computer science and software engineering and was going to study more when I reached actual college.”

“That’s cool. I wouldn’t have the patience for that. Too many small things.” Maybe Kyungsoo is good at small things because he is small. (Maybe Yixing’s mind is tired and he needs to go get some sleep).

“Yeah, a lot of people say that.” He chuckles. “But anyway– the problem is that the only circuit boards I know of are on the ship. And all the information is here… and I don’t think I’ll be able to manage this again, to be honest…”

“So we can’t talk about it?” Yixing finishes. “Even to each other, in the room?”

“Yeah… we’ll be fine though. We’re here to get information on RF, and the bracelets have no way of reading our minds or making judgements as to why we’re looking at what. Not that they can see, either, if you wear sleeves. It’s not too big of a risk. And when we get back onto the ship I can finish the inhibitor and then use it to free us so we can talk about it, because there _are_ some places on the ship that aren’t monitored.”

“Like the locker room?”

“Yes, like the locker room. But I know better places.” Kyungsoo says. “So, actually: could _you_ go to the information center and look for those things? Junmyeon can help you. And if anybody asks, you’re just trying to learn more about the place. As well as go with Baekhyun and RF.”

“Okay.” Yixing likes the thought of an excuse to spend time with Junmyeon. “But what about you? And the whole circuit board thing you’re making? Is that not suspicious?”

“I make things all the time. RF won’t think it’s anything out of the ordinary.” Kyungsoo then frowns. “She always patronizes me though. As if it’s _easy_ to understand all the polarities of all electromechanical devices.”

“Yeah, _so_ annoying.” Yixing’s sarcasm gets a punch in the arm. It’s rather hard but apparently it’s just normal for Kyungsoo because he’s now looking at the time.

“We should go.” Suddenly, without a change of lighting, the man across from him looks much more tired. Something makes Yixing notice the bags under his eyes, gravel in his voice. How many sleepless nights has he had?

“Alright.” As Yixing gets up and supports himself on the table for the wave of vertigo (when was the last time he ate something?), Kyungsoo exits the files and shuts the computer down.

“I’ll know whenever you collect the items in the library, and when you do, come straight to me, I’ll be waiting here. I’m not sure how many Exoplanet days we have left.”

When the door is opened, Kyungsoo starts to go the way opposite. When Yixing makes a sound of confusion, he turns around, explaining. “I’m taking a detour. Every camera is off here. Remember…” He makes a ‘shush’ gesture.

Yixing nods, heading back in the way of the dormitories. He is around seventy five percent sure where it is and at least knows the area. 

The finger over lips repeats in his head with the stern eyes of his friend. This is easy enough, right? Right.

_Right_ dissipates as the solitude and dark permeates into Yixing, welcoming second guessings. Sure, he can act inconspicuous. But _is_ he? If he wasn’t, why would RF treat him how she does? Why would he get shocked the most, the Mandarin paper translated, and punished so harshly for a misunderstanding if there was no prejudice against him? The last time he thought about this, he brushed it off, because he was innocent. But now, he is not. Now, RF has reason to suspect him.

And now, if he doesn’t play his cards right, RF has reason to kill him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok 1: mysterious music wooooooooooo
> 
> 2: i got SOO many replies on my last chapter when i asked for y'alls opinions thank u so much u guys are so sexy omg
> 
> 3: this was a LOT not only in word count but to take in, (especially the translation part lol if u found that exhausting to read good it is supposed to be that way), so again if u want to keep up with what going on i recommend to read when ur brain woke 
> 
> and also on that note, was this what u expected? i know some of yall had theories that the three are still alive but somewhere else. they may very well be bc, as yixing points out, they don't directly s e e the murder, it's more an assumed thing, but which possibility more likely? and are ksoo and yixing even going abt this all the right way? is this spy-stuff the answer?
> 
> thought provoking questions ooooooooooooo
> 
> and 4: there is prob going 2 be a late update this upcoming week as well. sorry about that and thank u guys so much for supporting :D although the story is becoming increasingly stressful I still hope it's something u enjoy <3
> 
> I hope at least half of that was coherent have a nice week !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	34. Alien Communications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After another sleepless night Yixing is brought to further suffering with a new job.

**THE SAME THING HAPPENS** where Yixing doesn’t sleep. At this point, he doesn’t even try and just lays in bed because he’s too afraid to go out alone because everyone else is asleep and here it seems solitude is the most endangering. For a couple hours he lets his fatigued mind run off into whatever fatigued thoughts, and then for a couple more he retries that sleep thing despite the earlier sentence, and then after those hours of tossing and turning he huffs and sits up frustratedly. He resists the heated urge to throw his blankets off the bed because he already did that and all that happened was he got cold and had to pick them back up.

The sheep on his bed post still makes that stupid face (his face) at him, as if it’s the pre-EXO Yixing, staring blankly because he’s stupefied with everything that has happened; where did everything go wrong? Was it when he first stepped into that hotel or was it when he found the door to RD_06’s room trying to shut on the wrench? 

Yixing grabs the golden trinket, rolling it around in his fingers as he has found himself doing recently. By now, the pre-EXO Yixing would have lost this, no matter how attractive the guy who gave it to him. But instead, he still has it a month later, genuinely using it as some kind of solace, and also dating the attractive guy who gave it to him. Strange.

It does make sense that in order for Yixing to undergo successful character development he’d have to be put through all of this. All of this getting abducted by an idiotic galactic gang to save the universe with powers and love and friendship and all that jazz. Should he credit himself for being so stubborn that it took impossibility to change him? But even so, all that’s really changed is that he feels worse about himself – and he’d call it more insecure than humbled – and he has a nicer body. He had thought that ever since the progress meeting things have been going uphill: he has been more motivated to get up in the morning and is actually friends with everyone and has begun to feel a little at home here, but now that’s all stripped away with the fear of RF. He can’t blame Kyungsoo, either, because something has _always_ been wrong. He was burned before he and Kyungsoo even became close. 

When thoughts of _what if I went home right now, how would it be? I miss…_ begin to surface, like most times he holds the sheep because the connotation Junmyeon put to it surprisingly stuck, Yixing places it back and gets up. He waits for the wave of vertigo to wash through him and proceeds to get changed. Minseok, the early (and late, and whenever-time-is-most-inconvient-for-Yixing) bird he is, is probably waiting.

However, when opening a drawer, his bracelet beeps:

_SCHEDULE: ZHANG YIXING TO **ROOM EXP_9** AT 07:15:00EXT + [DOHBI] _

Curiosity sparks as he clicks on it, trying to reveal more information. Nothing shows and curiosity ignites. An abnormality; he has never seen this and it’s certainly not training. With _Dohbi…_ what in the universe is he doing with _Chanyeol?_ Not that Yixing particularly dislikes him, he’s a sweet guy, but he’s also probably the person he has interacted with the least here. What would Chanyeol be doing with him? Chanyeol had mentioned manual labor during his and Kyungsoo’s tour. Is _Yixing_ being called to do manual labor? _Why?_ RF, as a robot, should have some sense and some sense includes knowing Zhang Yixing is not fit for manual labor no matter what Kim Minseok may tell you about his athletic improvement. And speaking of Kim Minseok, does this mean Yixing is not training? Is this a permanent thing? Can it be a permanent thing?

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Yixing doesn’t have any idea where room EXP_9 is, despite its simple name. Due to the sleep deprivation everything has been a blur, including his sense of navigation. He also doesn’t know what to wear because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, so he plays it safe with sweatpants and a t-shirt, something flexible but still comfortable.

His thoughts – slowly – race about what possibly he’s doing, full of curiosity and, honestly, a bit of excitement. It’s something new and a distraction from all of the fear of RF, and even if it ends up being manual labor or cleaning it’s still not training. Everything > training, except for things like dying and using the anti-grav toilet. Because Yixing is too busy sorting out the possibilities _(Maybe they are having me go and pet dogs to see if they are good to be sent to Earth because dogs are actually from space– no,_ cats _. Because cats are from space. They’re having me pet cats.)_ , he runs right into someone.

“Oh, sorry.” Yixing looks up, but then finds himself facing a neck so he looks up up and finds exactly who he has this mysterious schedule with.

“Hi Yixing-hyung.” Chanyeol takes a step back and lowers the hand he was probably about to knock on his door with. Awe, even Chanyeol knows how clueless he is when it comes to directions. How sweet.

“Hi.” Yixing taps on his bracelet and shows the screen to Chanyeol. “What’s this?”

For some reason, Chanyeol furrows his brows confusedly. “What’s… _welcome, Agent Lay, seven oh four thirty three E-X-T?”_

“What?” Yixing turns his wrist to himself and realizes he hadn’t actually opened the schedule. “Oh, no, hold on…” He reddens a little as he opens and shows the list of notifications, AKA where the schedule is. “I mean this.”

“Oh!” Chanyeol grins, “Today I’m gonna get you started with what’s going to be a job of yours from now on!”

“A _what_ of mine from now on?” What does that mean? A _job._ Yixing has never even had a job on Earth! (Minus internships he does not want to ever think about again).

Chanyeol motions him to come along and Yixing falls in step with the taller, racking up a list of questions about this new thing. _(I don’t think it’s petting dogs_ or _cats…)._ Yixing is pretty sure he dressed right because Chanyeol is wearing clothes of the similar.

“Well, basically, before you come here RF can, er, gather a good sense of your skills and stuff, but not absolutely everything. So when you got here she had you improve on what you were lacking in but then also assessing your skills again more accurately. She does this with everyone. Like… oh, when I got here I was really bad in athletics and stuff too. So I had a lot of training in that area.”

That makes sense, have him be up to par before deciding what to put him to, but it unnerves Yixing that he’s still so new and knows so little despite what, two months now? But on the other hand he also knows stuff _none_ of the others (minus Kyungsoo) know.

“What are–“

“And you–“ Chanyeol stops, apologizing, “Sorry– er– continue what you were gonna say.”

Yixing doesn’t bother to be polite and goes on to ask, “Does this mean you all have certain jobs? What are they?”

“Yeah– yeah, we do.” Chanyeol turns a corner into a hall that has a small sign on the left reading _EXOPLANET ESSENTIALS._ Compared to the other hallways, this one is neatly designed with parallel doors every ten feet or so bordering a glass window giving view rooms that look a lot like offices. “Like, aside missions and stuff, that get things for the Tree of life, there’s still a lot that goes on. Um… well, we do a lot to keep this whole thing running, such as cleaning. There’s also maintenance, research on things from other planets, there’s a lab…" But are there people mature enough to be handling that? "Organization and stuff, data entry and technology stuff, weapon testing, trading with the other planets, stuff like that… whatever us humans can do to help out, basically.”

“Okay.” They then reach _9_ and Yixing follows Chanyeol into the room. The red lines on the floor light up upon entrance, revealing a comfortable setting of a workplace. There are a couple cushions in front of a very low desk that holds several high-tec computers, similar to what he had seen during mission control. There are shelves around the room holding what should be books but instead look like tablets. Chanyeol sits down on one of the cushions and turns on a fluorescent mushroom light above.

“Hyung, you should come–“

“What are these?” Yixing takes out one of the tablets, completely ignoring the warning of don’t open shit close to your face and clicking on the top button. Fortunately, the universe doesn’t explode and instead the screen lights up to show a title of _PLANET #4482_ in a simple robotic font on a white background. If he were to infer from Earth, he’d say this is an E-book. Though for some reason he does recognize something like this from somewhere here…

“Those are books.” And he is correct. Though he can't remember where he's seen it before. “A lot of the books that have really practical use we just have in tablets because they’re easier to make. Cause we have more technological inclined things than primitive…”

“Okay.” Yixing puts it back, yawning as he joins Chanyeol on the other cushion. It’s circular but it’s balanced so he can sit criss-cross without tilting off the thing. There’s also the indent of a past inhabitant that lets him sink to the floor under him (perhaps Chanyeol uses both interchangeably). By the time he is cognizant of all of this Chanyeol has already turned four monitors on. They are all a blank light blue except for the one that shows a _WELCOME_ screen and an input for a passcode.

“What is the job?” Yixing asks after a minute of silence.

“Oh–“ Yixing sees the guy’s ears redden. All seven point five centimeters. “It’s– well, officially, it’s called _Alien Communications._ It used to be me and– um… so– so you’re going to do it with me. It’s basically keeping track of and communicating with all the planets we’re friends with and trading information and that kind of stuff…”

 _Who did I replace?_ is quickly distracted by _so I’m talking to aliens?_

“So I am joining you in being in charge of communications with alien nations?” This doesn’t actually sound that bad. Does this mean Yixing will get to see a real life alien?! Does this mean he’ll get to stop training with Minseok?! To be honest, two months in for this is a little later than he’d have liked, but then again, it shows him just how vast the timeline is. Two months is nothing compared to four years. This just goes to show how long he’ll be here…

“Yeah, that’s right.” Chanyeol seems to know exactly what he’s doing as he clicks through stuff Yixing doesn’t even try to process. There's a moment where Chanyeol looks back at Yixing, as if it’s weird he’s looking at him, and then does a double-take and clears his throat rather loudly. When Chanyeol subsequently blushes, red cheeks making a weird contrast to the blue hair, Yixing holds in a laugh. He has noticed that Chanyeol is a bit awkward of a person, especially around him, but it’s quite refreshing, actually, to have someone who doesn’t act like they have full authority over Yixing. Especially someone who he has to work with. Especially someone who he’ll probably have to spend every day with. (Minseok. We’re shading Minseok).

“Er– so, I wanted to show you a little bit about where we are… like, in space. You– how much do you know about space?”

“Well, I graduated high school.” It’s weird to think about how he’s pretty sure he’s the only one that has done so. “Astronomy isn’t a hobby of mine, but I will understand something if you explain it without too much technical language.”

“Alrighty…” Chanyeol then clicks on something that brings up a picture. A tiny circle in the middle is labeled ‘Earth’ and then around it is a ring labeled ‘Cosmic Event Horizon’. The space between Earth and the Cosmic Event Horizon is ‘16 billion light years’.

“What is the ‘Cosmic Event Horizon’,” Yixing distantly remembers the term from what was probably a three-AM reddit browse, but has forgotten any meaning. Or maybe it’s in a place in his mind where he’d remember if he got some sleep, but Chanyeol’s explaining anyway so no need to keep thinking about this Yixing pay attention–

“Oh, that– so… basically, the term ‘the universe’ can be split into a bunch of different things. Right here is what’s called the ‘observable universe’, which is the space that is accessible from Earth. There’s a different observable universe for every object in space, meaning that it’s subject to the object– you, you know what I mean?”

“Yes.”

“Okay… so… the edge– that’s called the cosmic event horizon.” Yixing can clearly see that, but he doesn’t make a sarcastic comment. “And that’s basically the line for what we can see. If something happens inside it, the light it emits can travel to us, even if it’ll take years, and we’ll be able to see it. It’s like… oh, so you know the sun?”

“The _sun.”_ Yixing narrows his eyes and never mind about not making that sarcastic comment. “No. Would you mind informing me?"

Chanyeol’s expression quickly flusters, “Sorry– I– I didn’t mean it that way– I just…” Yixing again holds in a laugh and waits for him to continue. Despite his shyness, Chanyeol really does seem to know what he’s talking about. Perhaps he had underestimated his smarts. “I meant… so, anyway… the sun is enough distance away from Earth that light takes eight minutes to reach it. So, if the sun were to suddenly go dark, under the assumption that nothing would change except for the absence of a constant stream of light, then it would take eight minutes for Earth to notice."

“So the cosmic event horizon is the boundary for when it’s so far away that it will never reach us?” Yixing is pretty sure that does not make sense but is too tired to tell.

“Yeah– well, kind of– you see, space is always getting bigger, and things are always moving. So there’s a point where the universe is expanding so fast that it’s more than the speed of light can handle. And because of that we’ll never see it… so all in all, what Earth can see is what happens across around ninety billion lightyears in diameter… so that’s just to give you an idea of how big only part of the universe is…”

Then, Chanyeol clicks on the image. Apparently, it’s an interactive map, because he then drags to the right, outside of the observable universe, and then to the right and to the right and to the right and to the right and to the right and to the right. Then there’s another tiny white dot.

“This is us.”

Yixing’s jaw drops.

Now, of course he knows the universe is gigantic. Lightyears and lightyears of distance that he can’t even begin to fathom. However, he also knows that modern day science has really only covered those things inside of this observable universe– and even saying _that_ is a stretch. That small circle Chanyeol showed is just about everything Earth has ever known outside of itself. And to think, despite humans only being able to travel to the moon and back, that there’s _so_ much more out there, that the moon isn’t an impressive distance whatsoever, that everything is _still_ expanding and will forever, that he's so far from home, his mom, Namjoon, Cat…

An intelligent observation elicits: “Space is… big.”

Chanyeol laughs and Yixing’s eyes widen because did he really just say that out loud?

To distract from his idiocy, he begins to ask questions, “How did we get here, then? I’m pretty sure EXO is a secret to Earth and it’s cool super technology but still, how could _anyone_ have made something that could’ve come here from there?”

“Wormhole.” Chanyeol answers. “The aliens make it for us whenever we go to places far away. Well, specifically, it’s the aliens from planet two eight eight one. You see, EXO wouldn’t have been able to be what it is right now if not for the help of aliens. And–“

“How does the wormhole work?” Maybe Kyungsoo actually wasn’t joking all that time ago when he said Chanyeol was smart.

 _“Hyung,”_ Chanyeol says instead of answering the question. “That isn’t even about the job.”

“Yes it is.” For a moment, Yixing considers not backing up his statement because he had said it pretty strictly, but habit takes over fatigue, “Because this is explaining the geography of space and geography is important when considering foreign relations because you need to know how travel and the spreading of messages works to do your job the best. This job.”

Chanyeol looks at him as if he had just said _I eat ass_ out of the blue but when Yixing gives that same look back he shies away. “Oh– yeah, you’re right– well– well basically, if you condense something really big, it’ll make all the space around it bend until it hits another part of space… the aliens have a lot of resources and methods to make them.”

“The aliens.” Yixing repeats and it gets the point across.

“Yeah! So, here, let me…” Chanyeol zooms into the point where there are clear clusters of galaxies and planets. Exoplanet sits in the middle of it all with the label _EXO._

“So out in this part of space– and, actually, a lot of other parts outside of Earth’s observable universe, there’s a lot of alien life. And–“

“Why?” Yixing shamelessly interrupts again. What? If he has the chance to get a good explanation, he’ll take it.

“Um… because, basically, Earth and it’s observable universe is in a part of the universe that isn’t that old– as compared to what was first formed by the big bang– and this means that a lot of harmful things that wouldn’t promote intelligent life– or any life, are still there and haven’t faded out. Out here is older so a lot of the toxic stuff has died down with time and that’s why there’s a lot of life.”

“Okay… so humans are an outlier to this, then?”

“Yeah. Exactly.” Chanyeol then grins at the thought of something. “They actually really revere us in that way, the aliens– like, cause we’re so advanced against such odds. Anyway, that’s actually what we’re in charge of, talking with these aliens and such. I mean, we get authoritative orders from RF, of course, but other than that, it’s really up to us. So this–“

As Chanyeol begins to point and zoom in on different regions of the map, talking about the intelligent societies and planets, Yixing eventually (thirty seconds later) distances from the explanation and falls into thinking. Despite distances further than he can fathom, these are closely knit places that don’t blink an eye when regarding beings of another planet. They talk and trade and intermingle to the point where it’s not strange to travel to another planet for another life; as easy as moving. Exoplanet is an outsider to this yet, the way Chanyeol puts it, what goes on with EXO seems to be pretty popular with these aliens. Why? If EXO was created by a human who, _somehow,_ got in contact with this all, why hadn’t it been shared with Earth as these aliens have shared with each other? Why are they the _only_ people that know about this? Why is EXO merely nine – well, _now_ nine – teenage boys?

And moreover, _now_ nine. Do these aliens know that EXO's robot leader has killed three of them? Or are they also under the impression that they died on a mission? They at least know they're dead. But, if they knew, are they then condoning it? It would make sense if they thought that three human lives were nothing compared to stopping the red force– the red force…

Yixing yawns.

Would it even _affect_ Earth if it got out of the Tree of Life, or whatever…? It’s a long distance, so it wouldn't reach Earth for a very long time… no, the whatever horizon– it wouldn't _at_ _all…_ what? That doesn't make sense, then? And how did someone from Earth even get in contact? Did he already ask this…? Why does Earth care about what… well, it’s the red force, it’s dangerous… but in this part of the universe things have been abraded by time to less dangerous… probably outliers, though… does this mean he gets to stop training with Minseok…? What do aliens look–

“Hyung?” A poke to the arm.

“Huh?” Yixing snaps to attention. He didn't even notice his head had fallen into his hands and his elbows leant onto the keyboard, making that obnoxious error noise he hated on Earth and hates just as much here.

“You– you alright?” Chanyeol’s big eyes grow wide with concern.

“I’m tired. Haven’t been getting sleep. Sorry.” He shakes all of the former thoughts away. It’s just more stress to this whole new job he has. Why didn’t RF wait until they were back on the ship to start this?

“Oh…” Chanyeol looks like he doesn’t know what to say to that. “I’m, er, sorry? Oh– Hyung, was that why you didn’t come yesterday?”

“Huh?”

A couple moments and Chanyeol shakes his head. “Never mind. RF must’ve never sent the notification… Anyway, I was saying that for a bit of an introduction thing– I– I wanted to do something a little fun. Cause, I mean, the job can be a little, um, mundane, at times, but there’s interesting stuff too.”

“Right.” Yixing pauses, brows furrowing, and then shakes his head. “No, not right. What do you mean, ‘mundane’? What does this entail exactly? For me… my schedule’s mostly been training. Does that mean I stop doing it?”

“Uh, I don’t know for the second one. You’d have to ask. But the other day I think Minseok-hyung said something about wanting to change methods with you pretty soon. Maybe he wants to start weapons, or something,” Yixing pretends that Chanyeol is mistaken and had heard Minseok wrong, “dunno. But this one is… a lot. Um… so, a lot of jobs come with it, but it’s not always the same thing. Like… well, trade. That’s a big thing. Not just trade of resources but also trade of information– actually, I know that RF wanted you to start authoring from now on, so I guess I’ll just give you the project I was working on…” Yixing also pretends that Chanyeol is mistaken and hadn’t just said that, “cause Earth is such an alien thing to them, the aliens, and we’re the first ever to be in contact and stuff… there’s also a lot of messaging and correspondence, political stuff, we sometimes help with… I wouldn’t say we’re in _charge_ of all these places, but I would say we are– well, have become, their biggest dependent for communication with other planets– the center, if you will.”

Yixing tries to take this all in and arrives at the conclusion: _so I am maintaining the well-being and peace of several planets I do not care about in any way, shape, or form…_

As long as it’s not training. And wait, did Chanyeol say something about _authoring?_ Had he _actually_ heard him wrong?

“What’s authoring?” Yixing asks, unsure if he had interrupted or not.

By the neutral look on Chanyeol’s face, he hadn't. “It’s basically– well, like I said, we’re the first Earthlings–” _why_ is this a word? “–to ever be in contact with aliens, so we’re the source for everything about Earth. Basically, authoring is what RF calls you writing about Earth. And you can fact check yourself with the records room, but then a lot of it just asks for a human perspective, and one perspective that knows about the aliens so you're a more relatable narrator.”

“Oh.” Yixing switches position to hugging his legs. “So I am supposed to write. Among other things. Among missions and saving the universe.” _Among finding out if saving the universe is truly what's going on here._

“Yep!” Chanyeol beams. “And actually, speaking of…” He turns to a drawer Yixing can’t quite see the contents of until they’re right in front of him in the form of a laptop with what has to be at least a whole notebook worth of loose paper tucked inside.

“I’m currently on a project about different systems of government and leadership and how it’s changed through history and stuff. But you can take over, Hyung~” Chanyeol seems happy about this and Yixing just stares at it long enough for Chanyeol to get the hint he refuses to take it. Chanyeol ends up placing it behind him.

He wonders, is he able to write about a robot leading? He has a lot to say.

“Why are there so many notes?” Yixing doesn’t pick up the laptop but does twist around to further stare at it and osmose the pain. 

“Well, a lot of research is involved... oh! Also, you’ll have to learn a lot about all these planets and societies too. Most of my stuff’s back on the ship, but I can give you a couple of those tablets to start reading. You don’t have to memorize every fact or anything, but RF requires us to be pretty educated since we’re communicating with them and stuff. There’s about three hundred planets you’ve got to know a lot about because they’re really close, and then–“

Physical exertion and now learning things he doesn’t want to… RF really _does_ know how to make Zhang Yixing suffer.

“–and that kind of stuff, but just today I wanted to explain it to you all and also show you something cool.”

At the word ‘cool’, Yixing’s internal suffering is interrupted. He looks up from the laptop and _oh my god he’s going to start having so much work this is literally why he_ didn’t _go to college_ and yawns again. “What?”

“You’ll see,” Chanyeol hums, now doing things on the computer. Yixing doesn’t bother to look and just falls back in thought. So this is what his future entails? Doing work with an awkward teenager for a cause he doesn’t care about and more likely than not still training with Minseok all day and trying to master healing (though when's the last time he actually did that?) and all of this undermined by a robot who’s killed three of them but he’s the only one out of two in nine that knows? If Yixing weren’t friends with the people here, he’s sure he’d be crazy by now. He finally understands what Junmyeon meant by the people here are the only authentic thing from Earth he has left.

“Hey– Hyung– say hi–“ A tap on the shoulder, and Yixing looks up to the screen to see a horrid creature with a giant eye and holy shit and he screams, jumping back (right onto the laptop) and holding the cushion up in defense because he doesn’t have any laser guns to fight it off with. Adrenaline surges through him.

 _“Hyung!”_ Chanyeol exclaims in an offended manner as if _Yixing_ is in the wrong for screaming at that _thing._ That… that _alien?_ Yixing is no longer scared because it’s just a screen (even if it’s somehow 3D). There’s a white, leathery skull with one big black-ringed eye and small black pupil. There are two limbs protruding from the sides and bottom of the head and small phalange like things coming from the bottom of the… face? It must be the face.

Wow, Zhang Yixing is really _looking at an alien._

“Sor-sorry…” He stammers in more astonishment than fear, now slowly leaning closer to the screen. This is an actual real-life alien. It’s not the triangle-headed black-eyed humanoid figures the media portrays, but it’s not too far from something that could be imagined. It has a head, a way of seeing, limbs, now Yixing spots a metal ring on the left one, is it decoration? Culture? And there’s a slit under the eye that is opening, and does it–

 _“It is okay.”_ A voice suddenly comes from the computer. It sounds like a male Siri, something more robotic than Korean or alien.

Yixing looks to Chanyeol in confusion and he explains, “Translator. No aliens actually speak Korean. Some don’t even _speak_ languages. It’s a rudimentary feature, so make sure to not use so much complicated speech.”

“Oh, okay.” Yixing studies the alien. The eye looks like something Earth life could have: shiny, wet; though there is strangely enough no sort of protection for it. The hairless skin is white and leathery, shining from whatever light it’s in. From what he can see, this alien is mobile from four places, three legs and one leg under the head, and maybe there’s something at the ends of these limbs. It’s not too different from humans in terms of features (though it damn sure is freaky looking) and that actually makes quite a lot of sense. Habitable planets would tend to have similar properties and therefore call for similar creatures.

_“Why are you looking at me like that?”_

“You’re–“

“New! He's new.” Chanyeol quickly interrupts before Yixing can finish _the weirdest thing I have ever seen and I am not saying that hyperbolically_. “Only one and a half months in. He has never seen aliens. You’re the first!”

And Yixing just gawks at the alien like a little kid while it and Chanyeol have a conversation.

 _“I see. What is its name?”_

The way it speaks… Yixing doesn’t think it’s by speech, because all he sees is the slit open and shut; no things like a tongue to manipulate sound. Maybe it’s some sort of radiowave or something.

“He’s Yixing. Zhang Yixing. He is going to be working with me from now on.”

The eye doesn’t blink and it’s a bit creepy, but the pupil does move slowly across the black ring it’s in. There doesn’t seem to be any eyelid. Yixing wonders how they avoid getting poked in the eye. Or if the concept is even apparent to them. 

_“Does he play basket-ball?”_

And also how they live. What’s the planet like, to have created this sort of a creature? From what he can see, it's very low to the ground, so maybe the terrain there is flat.

“Hah, no, that’s just me. Speaking of which– did you ever get that idea through? With the council?”

What is a diet of an alien? Or does it get energy another way, like photosynthesis? How do the elements that are out here change their way of life in comparison to on Earth?

_“Yes, I did. The older do not like it because they can not play it and the adults like it because they can and the children especially like it because they are the best. Thank you again, Chan-Yeol.”_

Do they rest to reenergize? Or do they live by being super energized and slowly losing it until they die? Yixing needs to reenergize. He just yawned again.

“Of course! A trade’s a trade! Also–“

 _“Why did it just open it’s mouth? I did not get any message.”_

Yixing looks up, narrowing his eyes at the alien (can they make and sense expressions? Body language? Do they communicate in a way as advanced and intricate as humanity?).

“Oh, he’s just yawning. You’ve seen this before. It’s cause he’s tired.”

He is quickly sick of being talked about like a pet dog so he speaks up, “I didn’t get sleep. Do you sleep?”

 _“Yes.”_ The alien doesn’t have any expression and Yixing begins to find it – among everything else, of course – creepy. Is perhaps the location of the pupil dictative of mood? Or is it just where it’s looking? _Does_ it look? _“On my planet we rest every month.”_

Yixing finds a flaw in that. “How do you keep society running, then?”

Still no kind of expression. _“In order to keep society running we schedule when certain rest and when certain work.”_

That’s interesting. Maybe learning about these things won’t be so boring. After another long look at the creature he asks, “How do you communicate? Do you have sublim– discree– more than one way of communicating, such as a gesture or motion or something?”

 _“We communicate with a form of telepathy. We do not use sound but instead enter each other’s heads to give message.”_

“So telepathy... can you mind- _control?_ What if you tried this on a person? Human.”

“Yixing-hyung,” Chanyeol interrupts the discourse, “this is also stuff you’ll read about. That information’s already been retained.”

 _“Is ‘Hyung’ what you call the Chinese?”_ All of the sudden, Chanyeol is as pale as the alien across the screen. His eyes become saucers and jaw drops a little, and the alien continues with an expressionless, _“I am sorry? Was this offensive...? Hello...? Is connection lost?"_

“It’s okay, Chanyeol.” Yixing finally says, “I already know about them. I have for a while.”

The petrified Chanyeol unfreezes, but it still takes a while for an elongated, “Errrrr…”

“It’s not a secret anymore, no need to worry.” He says though it’s a lie. There’s so much more that’s a secret. Yixing didn’t even know these people like Chanyeol did yet he knows they were murdered. In all honesty, it’s quite unfair.

It takes another minute, but Chanyeol finally puts himself together. “Ah, okay, Hyung…” An awkward silence ensues until he looks back up at the screen. “Um, so, I just wanted to introduce him to some foreign life. We’re actually on Exoplanet right now, so I don’t have all my stuff. I’ll get back to you about the other sports doc in seventy-two hours at most.”

_“Okay. Good-Bye.”_

“Bye-bye!” Chanyeol waves and Yixing mimics the action.

Then, Yixing is done the video call with the alien who he’s talking to because he’s currently abducted to save the universe.

“I just talked to an alien...” He says because maybe saying it out loud will make it more realistic. It just makes him sound stupid.

Chanyeol giggles. It sounds nice with his deep tone. “You’re way calmer than I was first time I talked to an alien. For the future, though, please don’t scream when you see them. It’s offensive.”

“Oh, yeah, my bad,” Yixing laughs, thinking about what that must have looked like on the alien’s side.

“That planet has more intelligent species, so the alien understood. They're from planet eight nine oh three. Most of the aliens are as intelligent as humans, but some aren’t so you need to be careful when communicating.”

“Are there any _more_ intelligent than humans?” Like every single thing on Earth has said _ever._

“Well– no, not really overall. They can be more intelligent in different ways, yes, but not wholly. I suppose that’s partially why we were made to help with this, even if we’re far away. These are the aliens I taught basketball to. I’m currently introducing their society to the concept of sports and competition, and they’re helping with translations.” Chanyeol then stands up, heading to the shelves, “Let me get you…”

“Who used to work with you, by the way?” Yixing asks. When Chanyeol looks, he specifies, “Of the three…”

“Oh– er... Yifan-hyung– Yifan did.” Chanyeol turns back and takes out three tablets and brings them to the laptop, placing them down on top of it. He doesn’t stop there, however, and goes to dig something out of the drawers.

It does make sense that Yifan was in charge of communicating with the aliens considering he was the first one here. It must have been heartbreaking for Chanyeol to have to explain to all of his correspondents why there was no longer a second person next to him in the video call. How long do aliens live? Do they view death as a sad thing? Do aliens have emotions? If so, how vast are they? Are they simple like dogs or complex like humans?

Chanyeol places a paperclipped packet on top of the pile. “Here’s just some paperwork to fill out so you don’t have to explain yourself to all the aliens. This’ll be translated and sent for an update. Those three books are some space geography and history to get you started, and you already know the laptop was what I was working on. You can just continue from there, I don’t think there’s anything more you’ll need to research for it… um… oh, most of the time for authoring RF will just give you assignments through your bracelet. That laptop’s solely for the job, so you’ll be able to do it whenever. It only lets you write and correspond with other planets."

Yixing becomes weak listening.

“And then for the other stuff you’ll be notified through the bracelet of where to go. There’s an office like this on the ship, and then there– I’m not sure if it’s done or not, but there’s– a, er, schedule thing for stuff that needs to be done. It’s technology so things will be added and taken away as you do them. But you’ll also be responsible for adding things requested from planets, so make sure to not forget. Oh, and you'll have to check your message inbox every day, at least once I'd recommend, for things from other planets. I think it's set up on that laptop for my account, but you can just sign out and continue using that device and RF can help you get on cause she has your password. There’s also plenty of other places on the ship that are comfortable to do work in, so don’t worry about going crazy being secluded to one place, and–“

Yixing becomes too weak to listen and lowers his gaze to the stuff on the floor. He gathers it in his arms and stands up, absolutely loathing the heavy feel. It’s like school all over again…

“–And also _thank you,_ Hyung.” Chanyeol says and Yixing looks up. Chanyeol’s eyes glisten with innocence and a sincere smile grazes his lips. “I know you probably don’t like all of this, and I understand, but it’s _such_ a big help to me. Ever since… I’ve always had so much to do and it’s been stressful. I mean… I guess you’re forced to do this whether I’m grateful or not– but just– thanks Yixing-hyung.”

And Chanyeol smiles shyly and it’s adorable and Yixing also absolutely loathes that he likes the people here because now he can’t be an asshole without feeling bad so he just smiles weakly back.

Suddenly, Chanyeol’s face brightens in what looks like an idea.

“Hold on! One thing!” Chanyeol hurriedly opens a drawer and digs through it, taking out what looks eerily similar to a smart phone.

“We’ve gotta update our picture, now.” Before Yixing can ask what that means, Chanyeol has pulled up a camera and Yixing is crushed into a bro-hold. A peace sign goes up near Yixing’s eye and Chanyeol grins with those really white teeth of his.

“Smile~” And as Yixing’s registering how long it’s been since he has seen himself in a camera, there’s a snap and then the peace sign is gone and Chanyeol’s inspecting the picture.

“Oh… Hyung, you weren’t ready, I don’t think.” He says. “Wanna retake?”

Yixing looks at the picture and sees a deep dimple, a faraway look, and half-parted lips that practically scream _I am not reliable therefore go to my colleague instead of me._ It all looks like it could belong to a small gold trinket.

“No, it’s good. Keep it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! I had to skip last weeks update but the schedule should be back to normal from now on!
> 
> and wow this is v information heavy and also all of the space stuff could be total bullshit I literally got everything from wikipedia and yt videos. so feel free to correct me! honestly y'all the last genre I saw myself writing was sci-fi LOL I really don't know what happened
> 
> ok have a nice week <3


	35. LAY Wants to Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing gets into a fight with his trainer, reads the journal of a dead member, and tries his hardest to deal with the shenanigans of Baekhyun and RF_05.

**UPON ENTERING** his dormitory after a short dinner with Chanyeol that goes just as awkward as the rest of the day, Yixing receives _seven_ notifications on his bracelet.

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] COMPLETE “GOVERNMENT AND SYSTEMS OF LEADERSHIP” IN [5] DAYS_

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] TRANSLATE “GOVERNMENT AND SYSTEMS OF LEADERSHIP” IN [6] DAYS_

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] COMPLETE “EXO_AC_PROFILE#3” IN [2] DAYS_

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] TRANSLATE “EXO_AC_PROFILE#3” IN [2] DAYS_

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] READ “INTRO TO COSMOLOGY” IN [30] DAYS_

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] READ “TOPOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF SPACE” IN [30] DAYS_

_ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] READ “SOCIETIES BESIDES EARTH” IN [30] DAYS_

_[LAY]_ wants to die.

But he can’t, because he has to start that thing due in two days, which quickly turns to one when midnight passes and he’s _still_ trying to find an answer to _What’s the best part about EXO?_ and the rest of the assignments tick down a day as well and Yixing wonders what will happen if (read: when) he does not make these due dates and if he will be punished, and then there’s What’s Up With RF and also, as Yixing remembers at three AM when he’s filling out a questionnaire about RF with utmost caution, he has to get books from the 'library' about EXO and RF for Kyungsoo and also meet up with him. Yixing wonders what Kyungsoo does for a job. Yixing wonders how anyone here stays sane. 

He finishes the way-too-long packet of questions in about four hours and then he fearfully tries to sleep again. It doesn’t work because of the adverb _fearfully_ so he takes thirty minutes to stare at the books – and not read them – and then check out what Chanyeol was working on. He finds the _whole_ notepad filled with notes about governments and historical events and his handwriting is barely legible and Yixing looks at what he’s typed and the laptop’s brightness that doesn’t turn down burns his tired eyes and it’s about thirteen pages and the next title is sectioned _Examples Of Successful Monarchy_ (not EXO, by the way) and damn, he _really_ should’ve paid attention in high school.

Once again Yixing is outraged over how damn _unfair_ this is. Being forced to exercise to get a nice body is one thing, but this… _what_ does he get out of it? Besides sleepless nights and the constant regret of not remembering something because he had forgotten it after the test because he didn’t fucking plan to have tertiary education or what-he-learned-in-high-school based assignments, what good is there? None. He has half a mind to storm into whatever room RF’s in with an angry tirade about _can’t you put me to some different kind of use you are a robot you should be smart and know I can’t fucking do this shit what kind of leader are you I refuse to do this go ahead kill me wait no don’t actually,_ but that half a mind turns into no mind at _wait no don’t actually_ and then turns to _I really need to talk to Kyungsoo. I really need to figure all that out._

Fuck everything.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

At six AM, Yixing’s half-conscious daze is broken by a sharp knock on the door. It’s rather harsh, and who’s angry at him? Did Yixing do something? He can’t remember. He was by himself all of yesterday besides Chanyeol. Unless he wasn’t?

Yixing opens the door to an athletically garbed Minseok. A wave of exasperation sweeps through him and he feels equally strong urges to punch him in the face and cry into his shoulder.

“Hyung,” He keeps a firm hand on the door, making sure to not open it all the way. Maybe with a quick enough move he can lock himself in. “Please, not today. A day off. Seriously.”

Of course, Yixing has also said these words in vain many times before, so Minseok just rolls his eyes. “Let’s go.”

“I am…” Yixing then gets an idea and risks removing his hand from the door to press on his bracelet. He swipes to access that long list of things he has to do.

“Look at all this,” He says, then pointing a thumb back towards his bed where several papers and books are strewn about. “I was just assigned a job thing and it’s demanding a lot of things from me really soon. I just don’t have time.”

Feline eyes squint at the screen, reading across everything carefully. For a moment, Yixing thinks he’s actually considering, but that spark of hope is distinguished by a scoff.

 _“Thirty days,_ Yixing. You have time. The rest of us uphold these kinds of schedules, so there’s no reason you can’t either.” His voice is husky from what must’ve been a good night’s sleep. He’s also now got a foot hooked securely around the door; he knew his intentions.

Yixing suppresses a suddenly very strong irritation with the reminder that Minseok is unaware of the third factor stressing him out. “...Please, Hyung, I’m so tired. I’m not ready to do these kinds of schedules. I... I just need a little more time. Just until we go back onto the ship. And besides, it doesn’t say that I have training with you _any–“_

_Beep!_

He doesn’t even need to check his bracelet to know what it is.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

How nice it would be for Yixing to believe in something like Everything Happens For a Reason. Something that makes people completely disregard all of their suffering in the adamant belief that something good will come of it. Whether that good thing does ultimately arrive or not doesn’t matter, because either way they have that belief and for that they are content. But Yixing instead believes in Randomness, which means not only does he know the cold hard truth, that his suffering will prolong and does not guarantee end in any joy, but also that there is nothing to quell his indignance and frustration. Running faster on the treadmill just makes him feel sick, not satisfied. Why do the movies portray physical exertion as _relieving?_ It’s literally painful.

Fortunately, one good thing happens and Yixing’s exhaustion manifests and he becomes too tired for the speed and trips. Although the slight pain in his ankle when he heads to the weight rack is something he knows will linger a couple days, Minseok said he could just do dumbbells for now which means he can breathe so he will live to see those couple days.

“Minseok-hyung,” Yixing asks as he’s bringing his left arm up and down, mustering through the tight burn, “so I have a schedule now…”

“Yep. You do.” Minseok seems to either 1) be oblivious to what he’s hinting at or 2) know exactly what he’s hinting at.

“Well… I was wondering, since the schedule’s the most important thing I have to do, what that meant for my training.” He tries to discreetly slip in the fact, but Minseok looks up with his brows a bit furrowed and Yixing knows he hadn’t succeeded.

“You’ll continue to do both, Yixing.” He says in a matter-of-factly way that’s just a bit aggravating. “Only that I think you’re alright on your physical stuff, now,” his tone hints that a forty pound dumbbell curl is mediocre _,_ “so I think back on the ship I’ll start you with weapons. I probably should’ve started a little earlier, but your body was really bad, so…”

So Chanyeol wasn’t mistaken about the weapons. Yixing thinks this over. If the weapons don’t require as much physical strain, maybe they won’t be so bad, actually. And maybe it will, unlike this, actually make him feel safer because he’ll actually be able to defend himself (the only defending himself sparring has brought is from the people here– and if it gets to that point they end up using their powers anyway).

“Thanks. Means a lot.” Yixing deadpans as he drops the forty and picks up the thirty-five for his right despite Minseok’s insistence of _they should be the same no matter what you jerk off with._

“Don’t give me attitude.”

 _“Seriously?”_ Yixing gives attitude, but Minseok glares with those sharp eyes of his and he quickly revises, “Sorry. I’m just… tired. I didn’t sleep last night. Or the night before that. Or the night before that.” 

Instead of any sympathy, he gets: “And why didn’t you sleep? You should be taking care of yourself. You know this.” 

Yixing usually isn’t rude to Minseok, especially since he knows fully well what this results in, but his vexation has only grown every minute with this guy, every word, every repetition. “It’s not like I _try_ to not sleep, idiot. I’m just really stressed out right now.”

“Yah, what did you just call me?” Minseok stands from the bench and Yixing puts down the weight.

“You heard me.” The exhaustion not only lets him speak his mind, but also keeps him unafraid of the consequences. “What makes you think you have authority over what I say? You’re just another agent.”

“I’m your elder and I have been here _far_ longer than you have, Yixing. I’m doing you a huge favor with this training and all I get in return is you whining every time like you’re three and not nineteen. The least you can do is show me some respect.”

 _Whining every time like you’re three and not nineteen_ sets Yixing off.

“You’re _also_ an insolent asshole who patronizes me every chance you get. You’re right. I _do_ whine. And maybe, if you can get it through your mighty twenty year old elder head, you can realize it’s because I don’t particularly like being the subject of a sadist.”

 _“Insolent asshole?”_ Minseok repeats. His voice is airy and gentle as always but Yixing knows he’s losing his chill by the glint in his eyes. _“Sadist?_ You’re being ridiculous. Get over yourself and continue. You’re at twenty-seven.”

Of course Yixing’s not taken seriously.

“I’m leaving.” And he does just that, standing and heading towards the exit. When a large block of ice appears in front of him, he simply sidesteps it. He does the same with the following, something boiling up inside of him, he’s surprised his seething doesn’t melt the cubes.

When the doorknob is frozen in place and he feels a presence behind him, Yixing decides he needs to repeat what he had done a month ago and get it through that he’s _serious,_ and turns and swings. Only that this time, it’s _Minseok_ he’s trying to punch. The action is anticipated before it even comes and suddenly Yixing is pinned to the wall.

“What the _hell_ is your–?”

“What the hell is _your_ problem?” Yixing shoves him off, but the liberty is short lived. He’s pushed right back and both hands he lifts to do something are pinned to the wall like butterfly wings despite the forty (and thirty-five) pounds he had just been curling. Hence, he has no other resort and knees upwards, which gets him free for a second but then Minseok’s got him to the wall again but this time by his _throat_ and Yixing tries to get him off but the hands become _very_ cold and he can’t breathe and–

 _ZAP!_

Both parties yelp as a strong current of electrocution surges and he can breathe again.

The only good thing that has come out of being the biggest liar is that Yixing isn’t confused. He immediately knows what happened. He takes the opportunity of shock to shove Minseok away, dusting himself off and gritting through the slow burn that claws down his spine. Deep red suddenly appears on the floor and he looks first to his wrist, but then he feels liquid run down his chest. He stopped sweating that hard after the treadmill. A hand to his neck procures a rather worrying amount of blood. From this, Yixing gets about ten different very evil ideas but he restrains himself as to see Minseok’s initial reaction (which hopefully isn’t retaliation). The door handle is still overlayed with frost.

“That… RF? Just…?” While Minseok’s still putting two and two together, his face suddenly falters, “Oh, you’re… bleeding…” 

“Yes, I’m bleeding. Now let me go.” Yixing stops himself from saying _or I’ll lose so much blood I’ll throw up too_ because that’s just plain mean.

“Why are you… _bleeding?”_ Minseok seems to have lost all traces of anger, and is looking the other way too, but Yixing still doesn’t let his guard down.

 _“Seriously?"_ Does he not understand what just happened? Yixing goes to kindly explain, "I'm _bleeding_ because some people are fucking assholes and like to hold me by the neck with sharp ice in their hands. Now let me off or I’ll lose so much blood I’ll throw up too.” Yixing doubts that would actually happen, but because he is A) just plain mean and B) pissed, he still says it.

Minseok’s eyes widen and his voice loses all chill, _“Don’t_ joke about that. What’s wrong with you?”

“...Sorry– that was an exaggeration, bleeding out." An idea comes and considering how off-put he looks by the mere remark, perhaps this will work...

"–But Hyung, I still _really_ don't feel good. Honestly, the running made me nauseous, and now the shock...” Yixing corroborates this lie with a hand, the bloody one, to his mouth and a sound deep from his throat. “Hyung… I– I really don’t feel good, please let me go, I really think I’m gonna be sick. I really think I'm gonna–“

_“Stop!”_

Minseok’s hands are over his ears and the frost disappears from the door handle.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Yixing reenters his room after a visit to the medical unit his bracelet pointed him to. He’s too exhausted for a shower and plans to pass out, he's not feeling as shitty as normal from the victory earlier, but then he notices a book that definitely isn’t any Chanyeol had given on his bed. It’s a leather journal, something like an ancient artifact he’d see in a movie except that it’s not bible thick. It takes a couple seconds of staring, _what is this? Am I supposed to know? Or has it been mine the whole time?,_ until two and two come together and _oh!_ Yifan’s journal! Upon the realization, Yixing's curiosity gifts him a bout of energy and fatigue doesn’t matter so much anymore. He opens it to where a singular sticky note serves as a bookmark.

It’s formatted like a diary entry except without the date and the letterhead– AKA something written on a piece of paper. It gives a strange sense of nostalgia to be looking at handwritten text. The Korean is in average penmanship, good enough for him to clearly make out each word and bad enough to know neat handwriting wasn’t the goal.

_I went to CF about the Tree. She said: the Tree of Life is a type of battery that has a massive capacity and 'abnormal abilities of conversion'. When we give to it, the power fills up. When the Tree of Life at maximum capacity for power our job is done._

_What is ‘our job’? What purpose does the power serve in saving the Universe?_

Yixing stops at the question because he knows the answer.

The job is to fill the Tree of Life with enough power to eradicate the universe jeopardizing ‘red force’ inside it. Why didn't Yifan know this? Unless Yixing’s just reading it wrong and Yifan meant something else… well, RF said the Tree was nature… right here is the technology CF told him that Kyungsoo was talking about… but natural or unnatural, it’s the same process, isn’t it… so why doesn’t Yifan know how it'll to the job... eradicate the red force... he should know about the red force, right?… Yixing doesn’t know. He’s too tired to figure it out and continues.

_Also CF mentioned a panic regimen for if the Tree is tampered with. It was planted under circumstances of time(?), meaning there’s something to do with it like Zitao’s (and maybe Nini’s) power. Time passes universally but some places are so far apart one timeline can be changed without affecting the other. I didn’t get an explanation how. But in case of failure everything here is reversed but won’t affect Earth’s timeline? Timeline? Zitao explained something like manipulating different speeds. But I don’t know how reliable he is…_

Oh, that. He’s talking about that Einstein theory, right? Relativity, it’s like, something needs to be faster than the speed of light to travel in time…? Except that there isn’t anything faster than the speed of light… why’s that? Maybe just a lack of energy… but there’re different types of energy here… but Chanyeol said older parts of the universe fade out, so shouldn’t it be weaker… well, is ‘stronger’ subject to a certain thing? What does this even have to do with anything… _it doesn’t. So stop worrying about it._

Yet, nonetheless, this all gives Yixing the burning desire to know more information. He’s almost convinced to go straight to the library or the records room, but when he stands he gets a dizziness that sends him right back onto the bed. From there, he just reads the page again. CF is likely to be telling the truth. So what _does_ the power do? Following RF’s explanation, it would destroy the red force from inside the Tree (why hadn’t Yifan mentioned the red force? Did he already ask himself this?). But Yixing doesn’t know how reliable she is…

He finds himself flipping to the next page, now reading about the cleaning bots. It seems here Yifan had taken an inquiry to CF about how they work. This is far before their hypersensitive laser upgrade and, according to this, they used to have ‘primitive’ measures such as water and mops. Interesting, perhaps, but not important.

A scan through the next couple pages gives solely expository information. It’s written in a casual manner, one that denotes a not very esoteric author, but it all has to do with the technology, the science, the places; how things in EXO work. Most of it is useless but intriguing to Yixing, such as why and how the beds are so great (adrenaline receptors sense what is most comfortable by the subject’s reaction and mold to their pleasure– wait, _adrenaline?_ No, that’s not right, what’s that chemical that’s happy again…?). The notebook itself is a normal length with the average eight by eleven or whatever it is page size. Despite having planned to be asleep by now, Yixing ends up looking all the way through the end and then starting at the beginning, even if he forgets what’s on the page right after he turns it.

At the beginning it’s a bit different. On page one Yifan writes something that isn’t just information:

_Hello. Here I’ll write about the technology. My plan is to share this with everyone so they can feel more safe knowing how everything works. It’s currently year 2 March. Midnight. I’m in the kitchen with Lu. We just had a restock a couple hours ago and someone has already stolen all of the Cheetos. I can’t say I’m surprised._

Under, horizontally, is messily written as if suggesting struggle to do so:

_HELLO THIS IS ERIC SHIN_

It takes a couple times sounding it out loud and a yawn and Luhan is suddenly his least favourite of the three.

Now that he’s reading from the beginning in, Yixing notices a pattern of decreasing narrative. It begins with Yifan describing how he finds out all of these things, his reactions, feelings about it, but these are slowly omitted as the pages progress and more is discovered. It morphs from a diary to a textbook as March year 3 turns into August, where it abruptly ends three months before he dies… But there can’t be a cause for the ending… there’s nothing suspicious and it ends on something about the bathroom’s fridge that could’ve been anywhere… Yifan probably just got lazy… _I would have at “Hello”…_

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

He doesn’t know when he fell asleep, but Yixing enters consciousness via a bright white light. He considers it a win that it wasn’t a nightmare until he recognizes the light. The lethargic daze is shattered as he shoots up.

_A message from RF._

Everything suddenly energizes in exhaustion. What could it be? Was he caught? Is he supposed to report to a room? What room? What’s going to happen there? It hadn’t been two days and he didn’t turn his work and he’s going to be killed, has it?! Panic immediately sets in and all he can do is stare, because Yixing can’t run away from the thing on his wrist yet he doesn’t want to face it. What was he thinking? Of _course_ they were found out. Kyungsoo has a knack for computers, yes, but what is he against a self-aware self-improving technology like nothing Earth has seen? How–

RF_05 HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU(2)!

_Another one?!_

How could he have thought that he was going to get away with this?! Yixing looks in vain to Yifan’s journal, wishing EXO’s old leader would’ve written about this. The bracelets. Hacks with them. If he liked them. Or not. If they were ever too much. About RD_06. About something that would actually fucking help. Given–

RF_05 HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU(3)!

Given, Yifan wouldn’t be writing down his suspicions, but there’s nothing that even remotely brings solace to Yixing. He wonders, is Kyungsoo getting a message right now, too? One that RF wants to speak with them, though they won’t do any speaking? Why isn’t it in the–

RF_05 HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU(4)!

In the form of a mission? Maybe because RF knows they saw that, so she thinks she’s fooling them? Does–

RF_05 HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU(5)!

RF_05 HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU(6)!

RF_05 HAS A MESSAGE FOR YOU(7)!

At the seventh notification, Yixing snaps out of his panic. Why is RF _spamming_ him? Especially when there are a thousand other ways this bracelet can get his attention?

Perhaps… it’s not something serious?

He tells himself _no,_ but hesitantly, the underlined word is tapped…

20:52:01EXT , FROM **RF_05** : 8==D

20:52:04EXT , FROM **RF_05** : ( Y . Y )

20:52:06EXT , FROM **RF_05** : dick n titties haha

20:52:09EXT , FROM **RF_05** : bro my pp be like 8============================================D

20:52:12EXT , FROM **RF_05** : NEVER ENDINGGGGGG

20:52:17EXT , FROM **RF_05** : omg would you fucking CHECK THE WRISTBAND GOD DAMMIT

20:52:20EXT , FROM **RF_05** : YIXINGSFFIFIDJS

_...What?_

Yixing blanches. Is he seeing right? Is he more tired and hungry than he had thought and now he’s hallucinating? Had he even been asleep? _Is_ he asleep?

More messages suddenly appear:

20:52:29EXT , FROM **RF_05** : LMFAOOO YOUR FACEJHU IGHVRig

20:52:31EXT , FROM **RF_05** : WHY DO YOU LOOK SO SCARED

20:52:35EXT , FROM **RF_05** : k mr zhang yixing report to room 22019 RIGHT NOW. or die lol

20:52:39EXT , FROM **RF_05** : no jk its bbh;) 

20:52:42EXT , FROM **RF_05** : im messaignt thru rf bc im wit her rn

20:52:45EXT , FROM **RF_05** : dw we didn’t fuck w/out you <3

Oh. _B-B-H._ It’s fucking _Baekhyun._

Yixing slumps back against the bed, letting out an exasperated groan as he wipes a sheen of sweat off his forehead.

More messages come in the form of a slight vibration and he lifts his wrist to his face.

20:52:49EXT , FROM **RF_05** : u said u wanted to come right??? to when i saw rf next??

Oh. Yixing had completely forgotten about that. Shit, what _other_ important things had he forgotten about, then?!

20:52:53EXT , FROM **RF_05** : k u cant exactly answer me lol but i can see u so jus nod or shake head

Instead of doing either of those, he picks himself back up and looks frantically around the room. Where’s the camera? He’s not surprised there is one, of course he is being monitored, he always is, but where is it?

20:53:01EXT , FROM **RF_05** : sis dont even try ur never gon find it

20:53:03EXT , FROM **RF_05** : r u coming or what

20:53:07EXT , FROM **RF_05** : omg u KING getting up and actually coming omg SLAY omg omg 

20:53:09EXT , FROM **RF_05** : u rly out here!!!!! omg omg yixning!!!

He might as well get this over with, even if his body begins to protest the moment he stands. After some thinking he realizes he also hasn’t gotten the stuff Kyungsoo said (cause oh right he’s investigating the motives of a killer robot), so he should at least do one thing

He must’ve slept for at least five hours, yet he still feels like he could drop dead any second. Yixing has no idea where room 22019 is, but there are soon arrows to help him out. Unfortunately, they don’t save him from the notifications, which are now displaying the message itself.

20:53:22EXT , FROM **RF_05** : MF DONT IGNORE ME!!!!!

20:53:26EXT , FROM **RF_05** : i will smite u

20:53:31EXT , FROM **RF_05** : ok smiting. </3

20:53:36EXT , FROM **RF_05** : ohno it didnt work :((((((((((((

20:53:40EXT , FROM **RF_05** : gon cry :(((( :,,,(((((

20:53:42EXT , FROM **RF_05** : bbh in da house cryin D:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

20:53:45EXT , FROM **RF_05** : my tears r almost as long as my cock :(:

20:53:50EXT , FROM **RF_05** : CAN YOU GO ANY FUCKING SLOWER OH MY GOD 

At this point Yixing doesn’t bother to read them, even when he arrives at the room. The place is the same size as the records room and EXP_9: small but enough to do the job. It holds two of those metal fold-up chairs like he'd see on Earth but with high-tec pristine metal and very tall, a giant looming ten-foot robot, and a tiny giggling five foot something raven-haired boy holding a tablet.

Baekhyun looks up, a smile spreading his face. “Yixing-hyung! You came! Well, I knew you were gonna, cause I can see you.” He flips the screen for him to see the array of cameras viewing hallways he had just been through. The reminiscence to three nights ago night unsettles him just a bit, especially with the burning awareness that RF is _right_ _here,_ but Yixing knows he can't display any discomfort or nervousness, or, at least, not the cause of it. Also, should he ask (complain to) her about his job?

“You are such an annoying texter. And person. I'm so glad I never met you on Earth.” Yixing greets.

“Awe,” Baekhyun’s shit-eating grin falls into an impish _I'm-pretending-to-be-sad-but-it's-not-really-working_ smile-frown. He places the tablet on the table, “Is it because of what I told you? Look, I just wanted to be honest with you. I…”

Suddenly, his expression goes solemn and he looks down. It would be convincing act if Yixing weren't predisposed to all kinds of vagaries from this guy. “I have a giant long dick. And, Hyung, I… I know this may be hard for you to accept. I hope you don't think of me any less…”

And Yixing just _stares._

“What is the significance of a large sized penis, Agent Hyunee?” RF asks and Yixing visibly bristles at the voice. So much for being inconspicuous. Even Baekhyun sees it, giving him a weird look before looking back up to RF. They're right next to each other but Yixing keeps his distance at the door. These are the two demons of his life. 

“If you have a large dick, then everyone likes you in bed. And, from my experience, in general.” 

“I don't like you.” Yixing diverts the attention from the flinch.

“However, you see RF, sometimes creatures of different species are incompatible. For example, me, with my humongous cock,” He doesn't like where this is going as Baekhyun skips over to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders, “does not always get along with Yixing, and his micro-penis.”

“Yah,” Yixing reddens, shoving him off. “That's not true.”

“Mmm... actually, You're right. Sometimes we _do_ get along. You also see RF, because we are so diverse, humans often practice tolerance. I tolerate Yixing and his–”

“I'm _above average,_ thank you very much.” It’s an effort to restrain himself from hitting Baekhyun. Maybe coming was a mistake. If he can’t deal with Minseok’s training what makes him think he can deal with Baekhyun’s headassery?

“Awe, you poor thing.” Baekhyun frowns, but it comes right off after he turns back to the robot. “RF, it's also good to show sympathy. Like how right now, I'm going to give Yixing a big fat hug.”

“Do that,” Yixing gets out before Baekhyun can make a move, “and I'll give you a big fat kick to your 'humongous cock'. It’ll be harder than last time.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen with maybe genuine fear for a fleeting moment before he breaks into laughter, wrapping his arms around Yixing anyway. “Come on, Hyung, you know you love me~”

“No.” 

“God, it’s always you and Kyungsoo.” Yixing suddenly stiffens. Why is he grouping _them_ together? Were they just talking about them? “Always acting like you hate me, when you really just don’t want to admit your love and affection for _B-B-H.”_ He's suddenly ticked under the chin and he can’t control the choked noise that emits.

“Hah! You laughed!” Baekhyun points and taunts like a child, then bounding over to the chair. He sits himself on the edge, swinging his legs back and forth. How does he do this all without a coffee? Or, an even scarier question, what would he be like _with_ a coffee?

“You tickled me. It’s a natural reaction.” Yixing watches the robot closely as he proceeds to the chairs. Luckily, Baekhyun had taken the one closest to RF, so Yixing doesn't have to be in suffocating proximity with the robot. Even though it's a simple fold-up chair, his feet _just_ skim the floor and the seat is wide enough for him to sit criss-cross. Along with this, he makes sure he’s still facing the door. Even if it would do virtually nothing in the hypothetical of an attack, it still reminds him that there is indeed an exit and there’s no reason to be nervous. Besides, she killed them a year ago. Maybe she’s turned over a new leaf.

“Speaking of you and Kyungsoo, what did you guys do at that sleepover, anyway? Two nights ago?” Baekhyun asks. It’s purely innocent but Yixing stops breathing for a moment. He tries not to look to RF, but he does anyway, heart speeding up. It occurs to him he may just have absolutely zero faith in what he’s doing.

“Um,” Yixing hesitates, racking his brain for a lie but there’s suddenly a blockage. Is it fatigue or is it panic? “We… slept. Over. Sleepover.” 

“My system reports both you and Agent D.O were in your respective beds, two nights ago.” RF says. For a moment Yixing is confused, but then he realizes _obviously_ Kyungsoo would tie all loose ends.

Suddenly, Yixing gets an idea and looks to a suspicious Baekhyun, plastering something of guilt on his countenance. “... I’m sorry. I was just really tired, and I didn’t want to offend you by saying that I was going to go to bed.”

“That is strange.” RF interrupts. “You are lying with both statements, Agent Lay, however, the sleeping unit reports your presence that night.”

But Yixing’s struggling to keep them tied.

How could he have forgotten that RF can still tell when he’s lying? The freedom really has made him too reckless. Baekhyun squints at him confusedly and Yixing is at a loss for words because his brain is screaming but he can’t hear what the screams are saying because he's too tired to listen so he just sits there until someone finally says something.

“Are you okay? You’re looking a little…” Baekhyun trails off and Yixing quickly wipes any expression off his face. 

“Fine.” He answers tensely, looking to the robot. "Maybe something is wrong with your system, RF.”

“I am offended. Things do not go wrong with my system.” Is what RF replies, but Yixing knows this is a lie. If there were nothing wrong with the system, how could have CF been destroyed? How would he and Kyungsoo be seemingly getting away with this? Or is RF only replying this because she wants Yixing to be confident in his secrecy? 

“Your heart rate has increased, Agent Lay. Is there something wrong?” They’re both looking at Yixing and Yixing is looking at the floor yelling at his body to stop reacting, yet he can’t, because he’s human, and what is he supposed to do when he can’t lie?

Find a truth, obviously. “I’m stressed from the job you gave me. It’s a lot. Why didn’t you wait until we returned to the ship?”

“I time things for what works best. And I think it is about time you start doing more around here. On average, you barely reach half the capacity of a normal schedule. Besides, you are the only one here that has graduated high school. You are more than capable of this kind of work. Now, is there anything else wrong?”

Indignance burns within, especially at the last part, _you are more than capable of this kind of work,_ but at least he had gotten away with the half-truth.

“Yes. But I came here to spectate, not get therapy.” Baekhyun’s face suddenly softens and his mouth opens so Yixing quickly adds, “I _said,_ I came to spectate. Go on.”

Baekhyun's lips shut but he eyes him pointedly. “...Fine. But you’re telling me later, just so you know.” He leans from his chair to give Yixing a soft pat on the cheek, then twisting. “Kay, RF! Bring’em on!”

“Okay. We shall continue from last week’s discussion: influence, and now the related: _power._ More specifically, what power does to things. Because this is a term my data base has several billion definitions of, could you define power for me, Agent Hyunee? Be prepared to share a definition too, since you are here, Agent Lay.”

Baekhyun grins and begins to speak but that’s when Yixing zones out: _influence. Power._ They’re right away things that have to do with manipulation. And RF is genuinely asking Baekhyun about this. Perhaps there may be a gap in the depth of the robot’s knowledge (“What is the significance of a large sized penis?”), but the cultural nuances of genitals and what controls absolutely everything ever known are two different topics. And shouldn’t there _not_ be said knowledge gap? Shouldn’t RF have that information? If she has access to everything that has happened on Earth, why bother to get more information from yet another human? It’s not like Earth is going anywhere. It's amazing how Yixing’s exhausted brain is wide awake yet there’s not one drop of caffeine in his blood. 

“–say in order to have power you need at least two sides. Because it’s about superiority. Like, my dick’s huge, but I can’t really say it’s the best unless I have someone to compare it to.” A wink is sent at Yixing and he zones back in. “Power’s when you have superiority over somebody else in a certain thing.”

The robot voice responds, “Okay, thank you. Lay, please tell me how you define power.”

“Well…” Is it bad if he gives honest answers? Is there something RF will gain from this? Yet, then again, Yixing has no idea about nothing other than the fact she’s killed three of them and is trying to hide something. Is every action and word infused with double meaning? Or is it simply her inquiry? “Power… is the ability to do something.”

“That's all?” RF’s tone rises at the question disappointedly. The realism never fails to offput him.

“Yes. Something can be a lot of things. I suppose Baekhyun is right in that it often has to do with one party having an advantage over another or being able to control another,” _kill_ _another,_ he doesn’t say, “but power doesn’t always have to be relative.”

 _“Powah dozen al-weyz hav tew bee ralateev.”_ Baekhyun mimics in a high-pitched voice, sticking his tongue out like a child when Yixing glares.

“Could you give me an example of what you think is ‘power’?” RF asks. Obviously, the most prevalent thing comes to mind, and that’s when Yixing fully takes in that he’s sitting in front of a murderer. It’s not as climatic as he thought, but that probably has to do with the fact that RF doesn’t need an incentive to kill: she doesn’t need a hate, an illness, a morbid curiosity gone too far– she only needs something out of order. It’s not a risk of a lunatic outrage, it’s simply whether or not the rules are followed.

“–and I mean, if you’re inside them that’s even better, I mean this both ways, heh, but if you just have them pinned under you naked then that’s fine.” Baekhyun’s saying. “But if you mean like, I-R-L has happened here example, then… hmm…” Yixing is looked at again and by some sixth sense he already knows it’s going to be something embarrassing about him. (Though to be fair that's not very hard to think of).

“When I had that gun at Yixing’s head during the gather mission.” Oh. That's not so bad. Yixing thought it was going to be that one time he was walked in on in the shower in the middle of very important – and regrettably very vocal – business. It was solely Jongdae but somehow an hour later and Minseok and Baekhyun and Sehun and Jongin were all giving him weird looks. “He was gonna do anything I said at that moment. So I had power. Even if the gun was fake~”

When Baekhyun’s voice gets taunting Yixing reaches over to yank him off his seat. This backfires, however, because when Baekhyun gets back up it’s _right_ all buddy-buddy on _his_ seat.

“What was _also_ power–“ Yixing grits because Baekhyun’s now trying to shove him off his own chair. “Was when I bruised your– _Baekhyun’s_ nose and kneed him in the crotch. And then he started crying. That– that part’s a physical manifestation from the other party that you have power. When they cry in front of you– _yah!”_

Yixing, because he's exhausted more than Baekhyun’s stronger than him, loses the fight except that because of the interrupting clause he doesn’t prepare to fall to the solid floor. His tailbone takes a hit (you know what? Maybe there's a reason these chairs are so high) and Baekhyun points and laughs, readjusting to hover his face over him. Yixing, however, takes advantage of this and kindly uses Baekhyun’s hair to stand himself up.

 _“And this!”_ Yixing shouts over whines of _let me go!,_ “Is a third example of power! Because I currently dominate the situation physically! Which is _especially_ satisfying because I was just pushed off my chair! Is the definition clear?! Shall I demonstrate more?!”

 _“–YIXING STOP IT HURTS I’M GONNA DIE YIXNG–“_

“That is clear enough, Agent Lay. Thank you.” RF’s calm tone easily overpowers the volume of Baekhyun’s cries. Yixing lets the poor boy go with a shove, feeling a reluctant gratitude once again to Minseok because without his torture he wouldn’t be able to do this. Though, speaking of Minseok, what ever happened to him after he left?

 _“Hyung.”_ Baekhyun’s voice cracks as he pats down his hair. “That actually hurt.”

Yixing blinks away the image of Minseok with his hands over his ears. “That was my intention.”

For a second, something hostile flashes in Baekhyun’s eyes and Yixing fears he had gone too far, but all that follows is an indignant mutter, _“You’re mean.”_ and Baekhyun sits himself back on his chair. Yixing doesn’t focus on the actual hurt in his voice but rather how he can sit so close to RF. Even if Yixing hadn’t been burned and didn’t know she was a murderer, the hovering ten-foot robot would still intimidate him. How are they all so comfortable with her?

“I am sensing emotional tension.” The robot goes to make the situation _un_ comfortable. “Agent Lay, apologize, and Agent Hyunee, forgive him, and then we will move on.”

Yixing’s eyes narrow as he looks to RF, but he figures he, though antagonized, had started it anyway. He twists himself to the right, reaching out to offer a truce in the form of a handshake. It only occurs to him he had picked up the gesture from somebody when, upon Baekhyun looking at him, a flicker of shock crosses his face and perhaps Luhan had always apologized with this mannerism?

Because only one of them knows that they know what the other knows but doesn’t know they know, Baekhyun’s countenance is back to normal in no time and Yixing’s hand is accepted.

“I am sorry for pulling your hair.” Yixing states in the most unapologetic tone.

“Izz good.” Baekhyun smiles slightly. “You could actually use that to your advantage. It really hurts.”

“I know.” Namjoon doesn’t have that bald patch behind his left ear for no reason. (That day Yixing had acquired the fifty dollars that was rightfully his... And also won that shooter game which was what he pulled his hair for).

“Okay,” RF redirects, “thank you. Now, Agent Hyunee, you mentioned power _roles._ Is who has power and who doesn't a fixed thing?”

“Um, depends on the person.” Baekhyun shrugs. “I mean, I’m a switch, so I can top and bottom– though I really am more of a power bottom– but some people like to only top and some people only bottom. Personal preference, you know. Though sometimes you can just tell. Like, for example, Yixing is clearly a–“

 _“No,_ RF.” Yixing interrupts before any more bullying. _Why_ is it always sex with this guy? “Who has power and who doesn't is not a fixed thing. The factors that create the dynamic can last for a long time, but roles can always switch…” Baekhyun’s rolling his eyes so Yixing adds, “For example, I used to be physically weaker than Baekhyun. But now, because I have athletically improved, I can most likely beat him in a fight. Actually, I can. I have. You just witnessed so.”

Baekhyun scoffs. "You _pulled my hair!_ You fight like a five year old."

"So you lose fights not only to me, but also five year olds?" Yixing looks up from Baekhyun's offended expression to RF. "It seems Baekhyun's not a very powerful individual."

"That's _not_ what I meant!" 

"Then what _did_ you mean?" Yixing presses, availing hesitance. Baekhyun stalls with a stutter and Yixing smiles sweetly, "That's what I thought. RF, let's move on."

 _"...are aeff, letz mewv awn."_ Comes a weak mimic.

“So what happens,” RF speaks just before Yixing can reply, but it's alright. He is satisfied enough with Baekhyun's red face. “–When a variable, a human, for convenience of relatability, of a state of low power changes to a state of high power, and vice versa?”

“Well…" Baekhyun clears his throat, sitting up straighter, "There was this one time that I was fucking this–“

 _“I would say_ depending on how fast the process is, it would open the opportunity–“

_“It wood opaen da oppur-tun-it-tee–"_

"It would open the opportunity for things like corruption or rebellion, because–"

_"It wood opaen da oppur-tun-it-tee fo tingz liek cerruptshin er rebellion, meh meh meh–"_

“Would you _stop_ mimicking me?!” Yixing’s voice gains momentum as a sudden flame of annoyance bursts in his chest. Surprisingly, Baekhyun does not have any smug grin on, but rather looks quite annoyed himself.

“Then would _you_ stop interrupting me?!”

Yixing’s eyes narrow. _“All_ you do is talk about sex! You literally say nothing of any substance and just give anecdotes of your sex life.”

 _“And?”_ Baekhyun’s brow quirks. _“Sorry_ you’re jealous, Virgin Yixing. And what I say _does_ relate to what she’s asking, by the way. Right, RF?”

When the robot backs Baekhyun up with a preppy _Right!_ and _then_ Baekhyun has that Smug Grin on, Yixing decides he’s done. He doesn’t leave, however, because he’s here for a purpose, and just drops his head into his hands and brings his knees to his chest. Baekhyun lets out a loud cackle and continues as such:

“Anyway, as I was saying, I was fucking this dude, right? And like, I didn’t know him that well, he was just kinda a nerd in some of my classes, I can tell you how we got to that point if you needa, but anyway, he was like a techy hacker gamer nerd dude, small and scrawny, so of course I got him under me right away, but then like, in the middle of it, I was jus’ talkin’ and then _boom,_ flips me over and tells me to shut up. I was like, _woah._ But dude was good, so I wasn’t complaining.

“But yeah, so like, it was a total shock. So to answer your question, depends on how the power switch happens,” _T_ _hat’s what he was saying!,_ “you can be shocked, pleasantly surprised, in my case. Uhm… angry, I guess. Or also cocky– aha, _cock–_ like, I mean, it could get to your head and then you become… oh! Like tyrants, for example. A little bit of power and you could become corrupt and full of yourself. Just like, for example, since _someone’s_ so scared of sex, _cute widdol_ Yixingie who thinks he's now big macho man cause he fought like a five year old."

Cute Widdol Yixinginie comes out of his hunch in a glare. "Now _when_ did I say that?"

"Didn't have to. The air around you radiates arrogance. And B.O, no offense."

Yixing's face heats up but he stands his ground, "Seems you're also lacking in brain power."

Baekhyun turns to the robot, "You see this, RF?! He thinks he's _so_ smart! God, this guy, really..." 

And Yixing is about to snap, but then Baekhyun twists back to him and his expression isn’t taunting, it’s a teasing affection, and for some reason Yixing softens and _fuck_ he hates that he actually tolerates the people here because instead of beating Baekhyun up for the second time he simply narrows his eyes and reverts to the huddle (and _fuck²_ he _does_ smell...). There’s then fingers ruffling his hair but they retract when Yixing after definitely not enjoying the feeling for a couple seconds swats at it.

An emotionless voice breaks the moment, “Your tyrant point is interesting, Agent Hyunee." It is? Why? "Why do you think it is that when somebody gains power, they are likely to become tyrannical? Corrupt, per say?”

“Well, uhm…” Unlike the other times, Baekhyun doesn’t have an immediate answer for this one. A velvety hum signifies his thinking, and it’s around ten seconds before he concludes, “Dunno. I guess people are just like that. Always wanting power. Human nature, you know?”

“I do know.” Baekhyun mustn’t find it strange, but Yixing, who has been analyzing every word said to its last syllable (or telling himself that's what he's doing while he bickers with someone who was definitely a twitter-user), looks up as if RF is a person and would provide an explanation at the inquisitive glance. What does RF mean, she _does_ know? Is it simply an expository response or something with deeper meaning? It's so much harder when it's a robot...

“Agent Lay, is there something wrong?”

Only then Yixing realizes he has been staring at RF for the last thirty seconds. He quickly looks away, offering an honest, “Yes but I am not going to explain.” And before, because both of the beings in this room are assholes, he’s forced to explain, he reverts to the topic, “It is not only human nature to want power, it's the nature of almost every species on planet Earth, because power is a key tool in survival and survival is what every organism strives to do. Because existence is very important for some reason I don't know.”

“God, Xing,” Baekhyun chuckles, “do you know how much of a _nerd_ you sound like?”

“Yes.” Yixing deadpans. “I have had nineteen years to hear how much of a ‘nerd’ I sound like. At least I can communicate something without relating it to sex.”

A scoff. “Ugh, you’re _just_ like Sehun. Y’all both scared of sex. But you’re an adult, so it’s even more pathetic.”

“No, I’m _annoyed_ by _you._ Sex has nothing to do with it. If you related everything you said to dogs I would have the same aggravation.” And maybe a part of it is just the fact that he’s exhausted, Yixing thinks as he yawns. The stupider the conversation gets the less focused he gets, though the robotic voice still spikes him back up to somewhere near attentive.

“Bitch, I am literally the _least_ annoying person here.” He did _not_ just say that. He did _not._ “Have you _met_ Jongdae? Jongin? Minseok and his fucking _obsession_ with being clean?”

Yixing sits up straighter to properly argue, “Yes, but I have also met _you_ and _your_ obsession with talking about your genitals and all things that have to do with them. At this point I’m convinced it’s all fake but pretending your dick is big and that you have had sex innumerable times is the only thing holding up that delicate ego of yours.”

Once again Yixing gets the momentary fear that he has gone too far, but after the couple seconds of blank staring Baekhyun bursts out in laughter. It must be the consequence of the guy’s volatility: even if they’re now friends, Yixing still doesn’t forget those times when he’d smile at Yixing and share his cheetos but a couple minutes later when everyone’s left the room he tries to choke him (with the cheetos, by the way).

“Damn, it really does seem like that, don’t it?” Baekhyun’s smiling and now that they are friends it _does_ reach his eyes. “I mean, I guess I can’t prove the sex to you, but I _can_ prove one thing… if you catch my drift…”

“No thank you.” Yixing immediately _catches the drift_ and his nose scrunches.

“You sure?”

“I am in a committed relationship. You know, the one you ambushed me over.”

“Oh, this is about _Junmyeon?”_ An amused brow quirks. “Don’t worry, he’s seen it too. You ain’t special.”

“He’s–“ Yixing knows Baekhyun just means through a shower exchange or something, but jesus fucking _christ,_ “You’re _insufferable.”_

 _“Wha?_ Why?! I didn’t even do anything! I didn’t _ask_ to be born with a monstrous gargantuan–“

 _“Agents!”_ Yixing’s heart startles and head stings at the loud voice. “This dialogue has gone _more_ than off-topic, and is now extremely inappropriate. You two may argue about each other’s genitalia away from my presence, please and thank you.”

This Yixing takes as a sign they are to get back on track, but Baekhyun interprets it differently.

 _“You’re_ just jealous cause you don’t got nothing down there.”

Yixing tries not to smile, but when Baekhyun looks at him and puts his hands over his mouth, eyes widened in feigned fear, he snorts and then they’re both laughing at the robot. It’s payback for when RF had played the audio of the times he was electrocuted during the progress meeting.

But Yixing quickly remembers that RF is a robot as petty as Baekhyun the human, so the laughter dies with the light mood, which darkens the more seconds the robot is silent. The red camera eye tells nothing of her state. Baekhyun still laughs but Yixing is silent because he doesn’t like when he doesn’t know what’s going to happen and it was really just a light hearted joke hopefully they won’t be punished maybe he’s just being overdramatic and he needs sleep but his heart is pounding all of the sudden so–

“You are dismissed. Leave.” The second silence permeates with relief, everything accumulated in the last thirty seconds all washed away. Yixing stands up immediately, though he has to catch himself back on the seat for the vertigo.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

“Oh, _man,”_ Baekhyun is still laughing when the metal doors have slid shut behind them, now the only light from the dim walls and footprints and stars up above. “I got her _good!”_ It’s a bit irritating to have him hanging off his shoulder like this, but he’s all happy and giggling so maybe it’s not that bad.

“Yeah.” Is all Yixing replies, mustering the last of his self-discipline to remember he wasn’t there because he’s friends with Baekhyun, he was there to find out possible motives of RF. He reviews what they talked about so he is more likely to remember it: power. Their last week’s discussion was ‘influence’. RF asked both of them definitions and examples of power. RF then asked how power is varied among people, and what people do with power. Tyranny was ‘interesting’ to RF. And that thing. That one thing… right, the _I do know,_ when it was said that human nature is wanting power.

Power. Last week’s discussion was ‘influence’. RF asked both of them definitions and examples of power. RF asked how power is varied among people and what they do with power. Tyranny was ‘interesting’. _I do know_ RF said after Baekhyun said human nature is to want power.

Power. Last week’s discussion was ‘influence’. RF asked for definitions and examples of power. RF asked how power is varied and what they do with power. Tyranny was ‘interesting’. _I do know_ RF said after Baekhyun said human nature is wanting power.

Power. Last week’s discussion was ‘influence’. RF asked for definitions and examples of power. RF asked how power is varied and what they do with power. Tyranny was ‘interesting’ to RF. _I do know_ RF said after Baekhyun said human nature is wanting power.

Power. Last week’s discussion was ‘influence’. RF asked them for definitions and examples of power. RF asked how power is varied and what they do with power. Tyranny was ‘interesting’. RF suspiciously said _I do know_ after Baekhyun said human nature is–

“Hyung?” Yixing snaps out of it at a tug to the arm. He looks up from the wired floor to Baekhyun’s worried face. “You good?”

“Yes. Zoned out.” When Baekhyun remains silent he adds, “I am surprised you don’t take that as normal by now.”

“Well– I mean– I _do,”_ Baekhyun smiles softly, “but like, earlier you said something was wrong. What was it? I told you you were gonna tell me.”

There are _many_ things wrong. This plays in his favor, because Yixing can choose something that upholds the integrity of his and Kyungsoo’s excursion and still further solidifies Baekhyun’s trust and friendship.

“Me and Minseok got into a fight today.” He says. “I got a job yesterday and the workload is huge and so I didn’t sleep to get it done, but Minseok still forced me to train and at one point I got pissed off and snapped at him and that did not end too well.” Though, despite that, Yixing hasn't spared the event a second thought. Maybe he should be feeling bad, now that he recalls Minseok's uncharacteristically desperate voice in _Stop!_ and eyes shut tight and hands over his ears, but then he also recalls the frozen hands and harsh words and countless history of bruises and sore muscles and injuries all the way up to the medium-sized bandaid adorning his neck right now, and Yixing really doesn't. Fuck Minseok. Asshole had it coming. And if this is the only way Yixing can overpower him from now on, so be it. 

“Oh damn, yeah, I heard about that.” Baekhyun elaborates at an inquiring look, “Don’t think I’m supposed to tell, but Dae said Seok said y’all got real physical– and like, not in the good way, and then RF shocked you both. Said you were being a brat and then on top of that bled and pretended to throw up…” A couple seconds, how's he going to take this?, and to Yixing’s shock Baekhyun _laughs._ “That’s funny. I mean, Minseok _hates_ you now, just so you know, but funny nonetheless.”

“If he hates me then maybe he should stop training me.” Yixing expected more empathy from Baekhyun, especially since it’s clear for even his newbie self that Minseok has genuine phobias, but since he doesn’t seem to care Yixing feels more free to speak his mind.

Baekhyun snorts, “Nah, never. Dude gets off on that shit. Literally have heard him say _so many times_ how much he likes the trainer position. He’ll probably just be harder on you.”

They pass the Alien Communications room and through the glass Yixing sees Chanyeol hunched over a bright screen, fingers racing across the keyboard. He has half a mind to go say hello but when he looks to Baekhyun the guy grabs his wrist and pulls him further forward.

“I really just want it to stop.” Yixing does the mercy of not commenting on it, “I hate it so much. I am grateful for the body, but at this point I have enough discipline to not need Minseok for anything. He’s just…"

"He's just what~?" Baekhyun pokes his cheek after the hesitation. 

"Nothing. Never mind."

“Come on~” Another poke in the cheek. “Let it out. I won’t tell.”

But Yixing remains silent, because he knows he shouldn't–

 _“Terrible!_ Jesus fucking christ I _hate_ him I _hate_ that cat-eyed ten year old looking motherfucker.” The words hit the slightly cold air like any others, but it feels so liberating. A warm laugh from Baekhyun occupies the silence and prompts him on. “God, today was shit, but it’s not like every other day isn’t. _Every single day_ I am up at _ridiculous_ times because, I don’t know, he likes to see me suffer, and he literally doesn’t know that no means _no,_ you have _zero_ idea how much things I’ve been forced into– you know that shocker contraption meant for defibrillation… heart shocker bring you back to life thingy…? Yeah, he makes me do _planks_ over that so if I fall I’m electrocuted, which I absolutely _hate_ because ever since– because I’m just shocked so much with the bracelet and I have a really low pain tolerance and he thinks it's a fucking joke when I tell him I hate it– he acts like _everything_ about me is a fucking joke. 

“By now, it’s _more than obvious_ I’m a vessel for some kind of insecurity issue. He _always_ makes it a point to show he’s better than me, to embarrass me, to shame me. To make me feel like shit so he doesn't have to himself. Maybe it’s that his only personality trait is being a big strong athlete, but even that’s undermined because he’s like four feet tall and runs and hides like a little girl at even the _mention_ of bodily fluids.” Baekhyun’s jaw drops in an _I-can’t-believe-you-just-went-there_ laughter, and _god_ it feels so good to get this off his chest to someone (other than Kyungsoo) who will not reproach him for it (“Yixing! How could you say that?” (Junmyeon)).

“…And in conclusion I hate Minseok and really hope I can stop training with him so I do not have to be in his presence because I hate him.” Yixing finds it in himself to at least finish diplomatically, though he can't help but smile at Baekhyun's laughter.

“God– god _damn,”_ It’s such a nice sound, warm laughs echoing down the decrepit halls rather than Yixing alone with the deafening silence. “I knew you didn’t like the training– but _jesus_ I didn’t know it was _that_ bad. Minseok just calls you dramatic.”

“Of course he does.” Yixing’s lips flatten. 

“Though, T-B-H… I kinda see what you mean. That he uses you for his self-esteem. I mean, Dae says he’s the, quote unquote," and a funny tone, _"'most confident man he’s ever met,'_ but like, Dae’s literally delusional when it comes to him. And like, it’s kind of obvious he’s so insecure, too. Like, how he always _makes_ you call him _Hyung,_ even though we’re all literally best friends? And in _space?_ And he always gets _so_ salty whenever I make short jokes or jokes about his fears. He can’t take a fucking joke if it’s about himself. I mean, I know my jokes can be mean,” A pat on the arm, “but I’m talking about the not really mean ones. Like, one time I called him ‘midge-seok’ and he gave me a black eye. Not kidding.”

“So it seems I am onto something.” Midge-Seok. Nice. (Midge-Seok… Miniature-Seok… Minlet… Minchkin… Diminutive-Seok… Mincro-Seok… Atominc-Seok… Mincro-Seokpic…)

“Yeah, totally. You’re not overreacting. I see it too.” Baekhyun nods. "It's probably cause he got those fears. I mean, if I reacted like he does when being near just like, blood, I would be embarrassed too. And also cause he's short. And boring. And has a small dick."

"What?"

"Oh, yeah, so..." Baekhyun snickers, "Didn't hear this from me, but Minseok's actually pretty small. Like, you wouldn't expect it: big muscle athlete, hot as fuck, dom vibes, but then _boom._ Tiny P-P." 

Oh. So literally _midge-seok._ Interesting, but not exactly practical. Yixing can't imagine retorting to one of Minseok's _you're so bad at this_ 'swith _at least my dick isn't small._ "Okay."

"But yeah," Baekhyun goes to conclude because he cares about basic conversation ethic. "So he's got reasons to be insecure. Don't mean he gotta take it out on you, though. Sorry bout that."

"Thanks."

A nod. “No prob. But also, at least you got a nice bod from it.”

"I guess." Yixing replies to sound humble as he yawns. Is he going to get sleep tonight? Wait, shouldn't he shower first? But he's so tired... but the hot water will help put him to sleep, won't it?

"Yah, what do you mean _'_ _I guess?'_ You're so hot now…" When Yixing looks over because it sounded just a bit too sincere, Baekhyun's eyes widen and there's immediately, " _–Man_. Dude. No homo. Man. Brotha. From anotha motha.”

“Thanks…” Yixing narrows his eyes at Baekhyun’s sudden awkwardness. It’s at this time the wide hallway to the dormitory is reached, and the strange behavior continues as Baekhyun hurries right ahead to his door and shuts it without another word.

But everything is back to normal when it opens back up a crack for a, “Goodnight, My Sweet Virgin.” And Yixing scowls and Baekhyun laughs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow that was a lot 
> 
> for the fight, who do y'all think is in the wrong– yixing or minseok? thoughts on what yifan wrote? and, if you could filter through the shenanigans (which I am so sorry u had to read), /is/ there anything suspicious about RF?
> 
> until next friday~


	36. First Date (Spending Time Together in a Very Nice Place We Can't Go to Often)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following – albeit a bit late – Kyungsoo's request for material, Yixing and Junmyeon visit Exoplanet's library.

_**WHAT**_ _**DO** I have to do? _Is Yixing’s first thought when he snaps back awake for what definitely can’t be the first time. Black ink from a still-open pen stains his fingertips and the tablet he was reading, something about alien societies, but why does he have a pen out if he’s _reading_ and reading a _tablet?_ He had already done everything he needed to that required a pen, right?

A yawn.

Right. He had completed that questionnaire packet. But wasn’t there something else to it? Sitting up, Yixing uses the only remotely bearable function of his bracelet – besides the time – and accesses his to-do list. Pressing on _ALIEN COMMUNICATIONS: [LAY] TRANSLATE “EXO_AC_PROFILE#3” IN [2] DAYS _gives him more insight to what he is to do with:

_Agent [LAY], please access the Manual Translators in the ex-halls to translate your document into the following languages:_

_LANG_PLANET_#1948_

_LANG_PLANET_#1949_

_LANG_PLANET_#1950_

_LANG_PLANET_#1951_

_LANG_PLANET_#1952_

_LANG_PLANET_#1953_

_LANG_PLANET_#1954_

_LANG_PLANET_#1955_

_LANG_PLANET_#1956_

_LANG_PLANET_#1957_

_LANG_PLANET_#1958_

_ [SEE 252 MORE] _

_Deliver translated documents to the Correspondence Center._

Yixing’s eyes tear up from the bright screen (and perhaps a bit from the realization that they are _manual_ translators and that probably means what he thinks it means). His body tingles with exhaustion and the adrenaline from anxiety that just _won’t_ go away no matter how deep he sinks into his blankets or invested he gets into his work. It would make sense to get things completed if he’s not able to sleep, but it actually doesn’t make sense because the Not Able To Sleep hinders his focus and therefore ability to produce anything good. RF, dead Yifan Luhan and Zitao, and yesterday’s meeting with Baekhyun persist in his thoughts.

Power. And before they had talked about influence ‘influence’. RF asked them about power. RF asked... Tyranny was ‘interesting’ to RF. _I do know,_ RF mused after Baekhyun said human nature is wanting power. Is any of this significant? It’s already clear RF herself is a dictator over EXO on, at least, in Yixing’s perspective, the cusp of tyrant. It’s also clear that RF already knows what power is; she knows she has it over EXO, Yixing, that’s why she lied straight to his face and said he didn’t throw the paper away, that’s why they have wristbands. Is RF worried about becoming a tyrant? No, it can’t be, that seems terribly unlikely in the face of three murders. Besides, robots can’t feel. Does any of this even relate to the bad thing RF’s hiding? Is it merely a coincidence that Yixing can’t get out of his head?

This isn’t something uncommon for Yixing, a knot in his mind, as any random thing at any random time can show up in his head and ground itself there, but he is always able to alleviate it with answers. Whether it’s a quick google search or investigation, Yixing has always been able to relieve any stressfully burning question _(What's the Italian government structure? Are my mom's arms short for her size? Can pigeons really carry letters?, etc.)_. However, this time is different. This time he has _several_ questions, each and every as scalding like the burn on his wrist and there’s absolutely nothing he can do or come up with to solve it and the more he tries the more exhausted and impaired he becomes.

He needs to talk to Kyungsoo… Kyungsoo, he’ll have answers. Maybe. Hopefully. Yixing _did_ go to Baekhyun and RF’s meeting like he asked, so he should reimburse with an explanation. But didn’t Kyungsoo also ask something else…?

Yixing shoots out of bed upon this sequence of connections: yes, Kyungsoo did ask for something else. That something else is Yixing go the library to find information on stuff. Stuff? Whatever, he'll remember later. Does he also remember how to get to the library? He wasn't told, he doesn't think... so he'll need help. And help could be... Junmyeon. And Junmyeon is great and awesome and then all of the sudden Yixing has ditched those two hundred and sixty two need-to-be-translated documents and essay and three books for the big white nametag with the big black _SUHO_ in the center _._ (Which definitely does not happen not after a bathroom trip to not urinate or defecate but just quickly and nonchalantly because-it's-not-like-he-cares check that he is at the bare minimum of presentable– _didn't Junmyeon mention once he liked my hair like this? Let's wash the face again...)._

Initially, Yixing disregards common social etiquette and tries the door handle. He’s not surprised when it doesn’t budge, and briefly wonders what Kyungsoo really meant when he said he had broke Yixing’s door handle. Had he done the same thing he had with the records room and hacked security to open it? Hence, Yixing now knocks softly a couple times, pressing his ear up to the door in hopes of hearing something.

When there is no sound, he figures Junmyeon might still be asleep. After all, it’s not even ten (for this week they have been sleeping a rather Earthly midnight to ten AM schedule). But he still knocks again, because A) it's about wake-up time anyway and B) he has more than just ‘goodmorning sweetie’ to be here. He also has to persuade (persuade, because seduction is out of the question) him to cancel his schedule and take him to the information center so he can find things (Stuff) and then bring them to Kyungsoo to investigate.

After another round of knocking, noises prevail in the room. There is some wrestling before footsteps, footsteps nearing, and then the door opens to reveal his boyfriend. His hunch was right: currently, Junmyeon’s wrapped up in his comforter, feet bare and hair somehow not all mussed like Yixing’s gets during sleep. Especially naps. Especially good naps.

Immediately, a smile graces Junmyeon’s tired face. “Good morning,” His voice is husk, fatigue cracking at the edges.

“Hi.” Yixing disregards that common social etiquette again and lets himself in, shutting the door behind him. He looks Junmyeon up and down once again.

“You just woke up.”

“Yeah…” He chuckles, scratching his head as he reverts back to his bed where the sheets are now messed up because he had gotten up with the comforter around himself. Is Junmyeon one of those people who _doesn’t_ tuck the blankets in? Yixing would know this but they happen to live in different dormitories. The people here do sleep with each other rather interchangeably (with some exceptions: never Jongin with Sehun, never Kyungsoo with anyone but Jongin, if someone sleeps with either Minseok or Jongdae they will also be sleeping with Jongdae and Minseok respectively, inexplicably never Baekhyun with anybody, and explicably never the newbie with anybody), but the K dorms are always defaulted to. Therefore Yixing is not very familiar with his boyfriend’s sleeping habits other than he is so pretty wow.

Despite all of the rooms being modeled the same, Yixing still looks around. There are no traces of personalization except for Junmyeon's current existence and the mess of clothes because apparently he does not see the hamper in the corner (but at the same time _does_ see the space in all the other corners).

“You’re up early.” Junmyeon muses as Yixing flops onto the bed beside him. He looks up at the wired ceiling, expelling a sigh along with some of the stress; being with Junmyeon seems to do that. He goes to explain because he can’t have Junmyeon think there’s something wrong but then there is a hand at his face, pushing his bangs off of his forehead. Like always, he melts at the touch and why is he here again?

Fortunately, it doesn’t seem Junmyeon had expected a reply, because a couple more seconds and he begins talking again. “I didn’t see you at all yesterday. Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry for leaving you to go to the dinner. I didn’t want to wake you up. Especially to bring you to a dinner…” A chuckle, though it quickly dies. “But also, at the dinner…”

Yixing’s eyes flutter open. Junmyeon’s hovering directly over him but he pulls away and shifts as if he wasn’t. “Kyungsoo told everyone that we’re in a relationship. I know. Baekhyun and Sehun came in to personally congratulate me.” 

Junmyeon’s eyes widen slightly and now he looks actually awake. “Oh no, what did they do?”

“Baekhyun belittled me for being a virgin and Sehun threatened me.”

“That’s… nice...” He responds wryly. Yixing can’t help but smile.

“It was funny, except for the part where I woke up to them screaming.” Suddenly, there’s a perfectly-timed wail from out in the hallway. It sounds kind of like Jongdae, but it could also be Baekhyun.

“Like that?”

“Like that.” Yixing glances to the door, but then remembers his struggle of getting in. Nobody can enter. Wait, so would this also apply to Yixing’s dorm and Minseok? Or does the door have to be manually locked. In that case, he has no idea how to. But Kyungsoo's always a quick wander-for-hours-in-hopes-you-find-him-in-some-obscure-area away. 

When the bed shifts from Junmyeon getting up, Yixing suddenly remembers he had an objective in coming here.

_Seduction._

Wait, no! Not that one!

_Persuasion._

Yeah, that one.

“Junmyeonnie.” Yixing decides to use the nickname for extra sweetness, especially considering Junmyeon’s the type of guy to give into that (ex: how he just smiled). “Question.”

“Yes?” Junmyeon replies, and Yixing is about to ask the question but he’s distracted by what Junmyeon pulls out from the top drawer of the techno armoire.

“…You wear contacts?”

“Yeah. Well, now I do.” Junmyeon takes something he can’t make out out of a small circular container. “I’ve needed them forever but I never asked until last week. RF got them to me a day later, so you could do the same if you wanted to, I imagine…”

“Okay.” For some reason, something seems a bit off about that...

It’s a little bit of thinking and then he realizes that _Kyungsoo’s_ supposed to have glasses and it’s a bit strange that upon request Junmyeon would receive visual aid within a day while RF still denies it to Kyungsoo after a whole month. The only difference between glasses and contacts is the form they’re in, and he’d say they’re of equal difficulty to create, so it’s definitely no accident that Kyungsoo still hasn’t gotten something that aids him.

Maybe Kyungsoo isn’t one hundred percent innocent in the red camera eye of RF either. Maybe everything they’re doing is just RF tricking them into thinking they’re stealthy.

_No, Kyungsoo blocked everything off, remember?_ Yixing tells himself. _And RF still spoke to me openly last night. Besides the bed thing, there is no suspicion._

“Was that your question?” Junmyeon brings him back to reality.

“No.” Yixing sits up fully, watching him close the top drawer and change into pants, and not that he’s paying attention to this or anything but Junmyeon has very nice thighs. “My question was… well, it is more a request. So you know how you had said that you have the ability to view and cancel schedules?”

Junmyeon turns from his dresser with a mirthful expression. Yixing quickly brings his eyes upwards. “I’m guessing you want a break?”

“No. Not a break. It’s for a reason… I need to go to the information center because I need to pick up some things– stuff– things for Kyungsoo, and I thought that since you can cancel schedules and you know where the information center is and also and indefinitely more important than all that since you are my boyfriend, we should go together.” And also the fact that there is a supposed 09:00-14:00 training with Xiumin and Yixing is absolutely and utterly terrified to face that cat-eyed ten year old looking motherfucker again.

It takes all of one second for, “Okay.”

“Thank you.” Yixing smiles, then deciding maybe he should try to give an, “I lo–“

Unfortunately, at the same time, Junmyeon takes off his shirt to change.

“–You’re hot.”

At Junmyeon’s sudden shyness, Yixing’s eyes widen because _shit,_ that was a really blunt statement.

“No.” He explains, then cursing himself further because he didn’t mean _that_ kind of no! “No– as in you’re not hot. Well, no– you’re not _just_ hot. You are beautiful. Like, very well built. You must take care of yourself very well. Well, I know you do. I see it. So, nice body.” The more Junmyeon just stares the more compulsion Yixing feels to clarify everything. “And I don’t even mean this in a gay way I would still say this if I were heterosexual and didn’t feel romantically inclined towards you I just mean you are perfect. Like all bias aside I would sustain an objectively better quality of life if I looked like you. And not just physical wise you are also a great person personality wise. You’re great… Good job. It must be hard work. Yeah… don’t look at me like that I have thought this for a very long time it’s just that I’m finally saying what goes on in my head out loud. You should consider yourself lucky, I usually do not open up to people like this… Junmyeon please say something don’t make this awkward…”

And Junmyeon says nothing so Yixing is in a situation of Awkwardness so he takes the best possible escape route of breaking eye contact and burying his head in his hands. He had learned at age ten that just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they can’t see you, but he had also learned at age ten that just not seeing them is totally fine unless it’s hide and seek.

The situation of Awkwardness is broken with a hearty laugh, and though the discomfort is gone Yixing’s face still heats up because Junmyeon is laughing _at_ him. He peeks out of the fetal position he had gotten into to see a (now shirted) grinning Junmyeon.

“Sorry,” Junmyeon laughs in the most unapologetic way, “I just wanted to see how long you’d go. But I think that’s the most detailed compliment I have ever gotten. Thank you~”

“I compliment you and then you go and make me suffer?” Yixing grumbles but really this is the least suffering he has done in the past two days. The statement makes Junmyeon laugh even harder so Yixing uses an established battle tactic and throws the pillow at him. Of course, making a plush a projectile does not do very much, so Junmyeon easily catches it except instead of returning it to the bed he just drops it on the floor. On top of what he had worn to bed which is also on the floor.

“Why are you putting your stuff on the floor?” Yixing asks as he recovers from the embarrassment and sits up again. “And not just that why are your clothes all over the floor when there is a hamper and also a drawer that you clearly know the existence of because you just used it?”

“Easy access.” Junmyeon shrugs, then heading to the door, “You coming?”

“You are going to leave your room like this?” To be honest, Yixing is a bit surprised. Although he has heard endless complaints about Junmyeon’s lack of organization, especially from Kyungsoo, he never really believed them because _everybody_ slanders the poor leader (Baekhyun and Jongdae seem to be thoroughly convinced that he is bald and not a day goes by without Sehun making fun of his Hyung's height).

“Well– yeah…” This time Yixing decides to reciprocate the action of just staying silent. Correspondingly, this elicits more words. “Look, I’m not messy, it’s just that everything is in a specific place where I remember it…” Which turns into, “And it’s my individual room…” Which turns into, “You can’t make me clean it…” Which turns into, “Well, I guess if you really wanted me to… no– _no,_ I won’t.”

“That’s fair.” Yixing stands up, though he doesn’t move. “But do you sleep with the sheets and comforter tucked into the bed or no? I really need to know.”

Junmyeon’s eyebrows furrow as if that’s the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. “No. That’s almost as strange as sleeping with socks on.”

Yixing, who sleeps with socks on _and_ the sheets and comforter tucked in the bed, narrows his eyes.

“What?” Junmyeon sounds confused, but then quickly puts two and two together. “Wait… do _you_ do that? Really? Which one?”

“Both.” Yixing proudly states, then responding to the look given. “What?”

“I don’t get it.” He says. “Why would you sleep with socks on and tucked in? Isn’t that uncomfortable? Aren’t your feet all sweaty? Don’t you feel not secured?”

“What? Not _secured?_ No.” Yixing has never been able to have this discussion before due to Namjoon’s similar sleeping habits. “My feet don’t get sweaty in socks and the sheets tucked in make me feel secured. _And_ the socks make me feel secured. Wouldn’t the sheets not tucked in make you feel insecure?”

“No, because they’re tucked under my feet.”

“But that’s what _socks_ are for. To secure your feet.”

“But then your feet get all sweaty. At least, mine do.”

“That is where our feet disagree.” It’s either his feet are weird or Junmyeon’s feet are weird. He thinks the latter. But, quite frankly, all feet are weird, being the stunted hands that they are. (He genuinely does not understand foot fetishes). He uses his feet to join Junmyeon at the door.

“Are we going?” Yixing asks when they’ve been standing there for a bit too long.

“In a minute…” Junmyeon’s ear is up against the door and Yixing quickly puts two and two together. After a couple moments, he then nods to himself, opening it. “Coast clear.”

“Didn’t know you wanted to avoid everyone so much.” He teases, yet he still finds himself looking up and down the hall as well before proceeding.

“Well, no. It’s just…”

“It’s early and you don’t want to be teased. I get it.” Yixing finishes for him. It'll probably be worse if they're actually together.

“So much for diffused chaos.” Junmyeon frowns.

“For you, I can imagine.” Seven dudes screaming at the dinner table. _Oh my god, you’re in a relationship? Oh my god, you’re with Yixing?! Oh my god, have y’all fucked?! Oh my god, why are you with_ him?! _Oh my god!_ “But I wasn’t there, luckily.”

“Yeah…” Yixing sees the memories being repressed.

“Anyway, what do you need to get at the info center?” Junmyeon asks once they’re out of the wing, proceeding the direction he knows is away from the cube.

“Um,” This is Later when Yixing has to remember more than Stuff. “I need... information about RF. Maybe like, her origin or something. Stuff about the Tree of Life, EXO itself, EXO’s origin and history. Oh, maybe a copy of The Prophecy.”

“What does Kyungsoo need this all for?” The question inevitably comes.

“He thought he’d teach me some more in depth information about this place.” Yixing says instead of _we’re almost sure that RF is evil so we’re doing some background research._ Lying to Junmyeon hasn’t been as bad as he thought it would be, though it does still tug at his conscience. But it’s not like he’s lying for his own pleasure. In fact, he’d rather spill all of this to Junmyeon so he (and Kyungsoo) wouldn’t be the only ones carrying this burden. The secret is being kept for Junmyeon’s sake more than his.

“And this couldn’t be done after your training?” When Yixing picks his head up, he realizes Junmyeon has a whole window projected from his bracelet. It looks much like his own bracelet's home screen, except with more things and wait, now he’s on a kind of schedule, scrolling through agent names before finding ‘LAY’.

"No. I wanted to see you so bad." Junmyeon laughs although Yixing isn't exactly joking. The box for ‘TRAINING + [XIUMIN]’ from 09:00–14:00 is moved to a trash icon, and Yixing wonders if it’ll work if he tries doing that with the rest of the blocks himself.

Just as he’s reaching, the screen goes away. "Done." Junmyeon beams as Yixing quickly retracts his arm. "Also, do you mind if we stop at the kitchen first? I’m starving.”

“Yes.” It takes a couple seconds for him to realize, “Wait, no– I don’t mind. _Yes_ as in yes we can.”

“Okay, good,” He chuckles, and Yixing is in the middle of getting all sheepish when he sees something out of the corner of his eye.

Turning around, he catches a glimpse of Sehun just before he disappears. _Disappears._

Junmyeon seems to not have noticed, but Yixing definitely did. Unless he’s hallucinating, which is unlikely, why would he see _Sehun_ following them? And _what could possibly do that?_

A moment before his mind goes: Oh, right. Baekhyun and his optical tricks. So it’s Baekhyun. Or Baekhyun _and_ Sehun. Following them. And Yixing has a hunch that it’s not because they (or he) happen(s) to be going in the same direction as them. Because the aspect of stopping to yell at an empty hallway doesn’t seem like the best new-boyfriend impression, Yixing decides to ignore it. Perhaps they’ll get bored and stop. Hopefully they’ll get bored and stop. Maybe they are just hungry and going to the kitchen too despite that statement a couple sentences ago.

However, that possibility is ruled out about ten minutes later when Yixing and Junmyeon are in the hallway once again. While the latter nibbles on a granola bar (“You said _starving.”_ “Hey, granola bars have a lot of calories!”), there is a sudden gust of wind. Some force shoves Yixing forward, and he ends up tripping on his own footing and almost falling flat on his face if it weren’t for his hands.

“Oh! Yixing!” An alarmed Junmyeon kneels down, granola bar in bite’s grip as his hands hover over him nervously. But one soon goes to take out the food to say, “Are you okay?” and then, “What? What are you looking at?”

After ten seconds of staring down the hallway with all his might yet seeing no trace of _anything,_ Yixing replies, “Nothing…” And because he doesn’t want to go and make a big fuss, he just fabricates, “I’m okay. I just tripped. Apparently, coordination can’t be trained.” Junmyeon probably doesn’t know whether to laugh or not, so a strange noise comes in response. It’s embarrassing, because Yixing is just trying to be normal and _somebody_ has to try to stop that.

There’s a bit of pain in his knee as he stands and now the ache from falling on the treadmill yesterday has returned, but it subsides as he continues to walk. After that, Yixing tunes in to try to hear footsteps from behind, but Junmyeon keeps talking and it’s not very helpful. Nothing bothers them anymore, though. Baekhyun and maybe Sehun had gotten what they wanted, whatever it is.

The Information Center is reached when Yixing reads ‘INFORMATION CENTER’ off of an electronic plaque. Following Junmyeon into the room (and _closing the door!),_ he is met with an odd sense of comfort.

In accordance to how Kyungsoo had referred to it, the library is a homey contrast to Exoplanet’s interior. Although aspects of EXO's sci-fi atmosphere are still present, such as the contemporary chairs and the glass table, the warm lighting douses the monochrome room in something vintage and there are actual, Earth-derived (or so they seem) books lining all of the shelves. The only piece of technology he can see is an old block computer, identical to the one in the records room, sitting at a lone desk.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Junmyeon is smiling at him. _Nice_ is an understatement. This is officially Yixing’s favourite place on Exoplanet (over Where-I-Asked-Myeon-Out and Individual Dormitories). Though he hasn’t as much as even thirty seconds here, he can see it now: him and Junmyeon, alone, maybe holding hands over there, or maybe sitting on that couch, maybe him being led through the shelves and maybe there’s an even better sanctum hidden.

“Yes, very.” Yixing shakes the visions from his mind, refocusing on what he had come here for. Priorities: he’ll get what he needs first, and then go from there.

Junmyeon finishes his granola bar, tossing the wrapper into a bin (an _actual_ bin) nearby. Then, Yixing’s hand is grabbed, and he’s suddenly being tugged towards the shelves which completes vision #3.

“It’s really pretty here. Almost magical, in my opinion.” He says as he brings Yixing into a narrow row between two tall shelves, ducking under an oddly low overhang. The place is _cluttered_ with books; what is in them all?

“Yes, very.” Yixing finds himself saying again, but it’s only because he realizes how beautiful not the room but Junmyeon looks in this lighting, these moments. His hair is parted slightly in the middle, letting a bit of his forehead show. The warmth gives a tanned glow to his skin, which, for some reason, makes him look more alive. The normal paleness, although pretty, has nothing on this. It’s here finally that Yixing sees him somewhere natural, where Junmyeon isn’t a figment of his imagination like all else of this techno-space; he’s something _real_. And when he smiles, eyes turning to crescents and perfect lips opening to show perfect teeth, Yixing realizes that it’s because he’s smiling too.

And they just do this for a moment. A couple moments. 

The adolescent scene dissolves into mirthful breaths; smiles towards the ground because it’s funny to like somebody this way, and it’s funny how happy just this makes Yixing. It’s something so strong that he forgets. Forgets the investigation and the burning sensation of his eyes staring at the screen after hours and the worried looks on Kyungsoo’s face and the hesitance of his words and the fear, confusion, the crushing feeling of all the work, the pressure of suspicion, and instead, the only thing he remembers is right now.

Wordlessly, Junmyeon continues, Yixing following behind and doing all he can to not reach forward and grab his hand, hug him, kiss his head. It’s also difficult to filter all of these thoughts, because one goes _I like this guy too much_ and another is _shouldn’t I appreciate this while it lasts?_ with several strong emotions while a subtle background rings _what am I doing, again?_ So he focuses on Junmyeon’s feet, copying each step so he doesn’t trip on his own gait.

“What did you need to get, again?” Junmyeon asks, soft voice sharply bringing back reality.

“Uh,” Yixing blinks dumbly, mind rummaging through its lists, trying to clean out all of the gold.

He finds it eventually. “RF. Tree of Life. EXO history. Prophecy. Stuff about this whole… operation.”

“Right.” Junmyeon abruptly stops, Yixing almost walking right into him as he turns.

“You know where you’re going?” He asks, though quite frankly, he had lost his way after they left the kitchen.

“I come here sometimes when we’re at Exoplanet. Not as much to read as I just like to be here.” Junmyeon explains, turning a couple more corners and going into a slightly wider hall. However, it’s not much easier to walk, because now piles of books stack up across the floor, making it difficult to dodge stepping on them. Didn’t Chanyeol mention fire sprouting from a book?

"You know... this could be like, our first date." Junmyeon suddenly says when Yixing's staring intensely at a suspicions looking volume. Because of a proposition of the First Date, Yixing's mind goes _huh?_ and then he trips on said volume and nearly stumbles onto Junmyeon if not for grabbing onto the shelf (which subsequently avails two books that just barely miss his head and now Junmyeon's looking at him worriedly).

"Mmm?" Yixing hums as casually as possible to compensate for the lack of grace and red face. 

"Well– I don't know... I was just thinking..." Junmyeon turns back around and Yixing breathes again, god, he's a mess, and _date?_ "It's a pretty place, no? And once we get what you need, maybe we could stay for a little longer, just us..."

"How is that a date?" Yixing tries his absolute hardest to continue walking and talking _without_ making an embarrassment of himself. "It's just spending time together."

"Well, because it's like, in a very nice place, you know?" 

When Junmyeon turns a corner Yixing stalls a moment to fix his hair. "Spending time together in a very nice place." 

"Yeah, but like, it's a special occasion. Because we can't go here often."

"Spending time together in a very nice place we can't go to often." Junmyeon seems to like to overcomplicate things. Yixing recalls when he was trying to explain the simple _asleep but aware of being asleep_ with _relaxing your mind and_ _doing nothing so you're at true peace and blah blah blah._ It was the same day he got the golden sheep that for some reason, realized now, has found itself in Yixing's pocket again.

Junmyeon Who Likes to Overcomplicate Things stops again, turning with that exasperated – yet affectionate – expression Yixing may or may not feel just a bit triumphant to have caused. "Gosh, you... why are you like this?"

"I'm simply asking clarifying questions, Junmyeonnie." Yixing gives a saccharine smile. Not to be gushy but Junmyeon's so cute when he's teased. 

He rolls his eyes, crossing his arms. "Well, it's a date cause I said so. Okay?"

"If that's what makes you happy." Though his insistence of this being a Date is that makes Yixing happy as well. But, of course, showing that would admit defeat. 

"...It _is,_ thank you very much." Junmyeon spins on his heel and marches onward while Yixing endures heart palpitations. 

So this is his First Date. Or, what Yixing will consider his First Date because he doesn't really remember anything from his other first date other than the aftermath (note word choice). Not only is the event itself something unexpected, there's also the it-being-a-dude and the-dude-being-Junmyeon and the-Junmyeon-who-he-met-on-a-spaceship-because-he's-currently-saving-the-universe. Of course, Yixing is correct in that it really just is spending time together in a very nice place we can't go to often, and even with the acceptation of it being a Date, it's still rather unconventional as there's no food or movie and a public place involved and nobody's paying for anything, but he can't help but think... what would Namjoon respond when Yixing texts him _Hi I just went on a date_? He'd probably ask how it went because he'd already know the who what where when and why because Yixing had told him beforehand. Maybe, if the date was nerve-wracking enough, Namjoon would even be somewhere nearby. There'd also inevitably be a _does ur mom know?,_ and Yixing would be petty and leave him on read because Namjoon loves to poke fun at his and his mother's strained relationship ("Dude, it's as if you have some sort of inner demon _just_ for her." "And she _is_ a demon. I fail to see your argument here."). And his mother, what would she think? Well– what would she think _after_ the discovery and then period of denial and then acceptance that it is another male? Would she at least give something of a congratulations amongst the _finally?_ Or would she not like it, because she doesn't want her son going out after he's been gone in space for too long, she's missed him so much, she doesn't want anything to ever happen to him again, she–

_Stop. Stop thinking about them._

_“Shit–”_ Yixing's inner dialogue becomes outer when he trips over yet another book, catching himself on the shelf. He looks back up to his boyfriend, the shelves in the library in the place he's never going to escape, the only reality that exists. “How– no, _why_ is there so much here? I thought the records room was the room of ‘everything that has ever happened’.”

“It’s just really cramped.” Junmyeon chuckles. “And also, there are a lot of things in alien languages, because a lot of the time they like to have things here for safe keeping.” Yixing wonders how to transcribe the language of that alien that speaks through radiowaves. It must be much more loose-ended; the bases of all Earthly communication is a message structured through a sequence of symbol and / or sound. So interpreting a sensation that doesn't include either of the aforementioned must be rudimentary.

But also, “EXO _really_ seems to have far better relations with aliens than Earth.” Though that's probably just because they are far closer in distance. But in that case, why aren't aliens saving the universe? Well, Chanyeol _had_ said humans are one of, if not the, most advanced species, and it was a human who started this all in the first place, right? Maybe this would all be clearer if he got more sleep.

“Maybe we’re all aliens, but we just don’t know it. Maybe we were given to Earth as hostages and were taken back when Earth decided it didn’t like us. Which is also why Earth doesn’t know about EXO.”

“Oh yeah?” Yixing humors him, though the explanation, in theory, is pretty solid… “And what makes us any different from humans?”

“Being part of EXO.”

“No, like, biologically.” At the end of the long stretch of shelf is a corner, turning into yet more narrow passages. Junmyeon stops here. He grabs a small stool nearby to reach up onto the higher part of the shelf. Although Yixing can’t see any labels, he can read some of the book spines: _RED FORCE FOR DUMMIES, RED FORCE MECHANICS, RED FORCE PHYSICS (BASIC), RED FORCE PHYSICS (INTERMEDIATE), RAMADAN, RED FORCE PHYSICS (ADVANCED)._

“Biologically, um,” Junmyeon Who Failed His Sciences Thrice (which is even worse considering these must have been _middle school_ courses) contemplates. Meanwhile, he slides out all of the titles including Red Force, then moving on to the variations of RF _(RF: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, RF QUANTUM FUNCTIONS (BASIC), RF'S ANALYSIS OF EARTHLING SLANG: CO–AUTHORED BY HYUNEE)._ “We have powers. Or, no. Our bodies are fit for the powers.”

Yixing picks up the ‘Earthling Slang’, heeding Kyungsoo’s advice and opening it a good five feet from his face. Good thing, because immediately jumps out a paper pop-up of Baekhyun (and he forthwith shuts the book). He decides to be annoying again and says, “And what characteristics differentiate that of us from that of humans? Extragalactic elements in place or complimentary of things? What things? How would it compute, assuming it has to do with terms at an atomic or molecular basis?”

Junmyeon holds _RF QUANTUM FUNCTIONS (ADVANCED)_ as he stares at him with the blankest face. After a moment of this and nothing to say, he then frowns.

“If I can’t understand what you’re asking then your question is invalid.” He huffs, dropping the book to a laughing Yixing as he turns back to the shelf.

“Maybe, if we go back to Earth, I can help you with the sciences. I was actually really good at those.” He sits down across from him. And not that he’s paying attention to this or anything but Junmyeon has a very nice ass. “Not that I think you’re dumb, but I’m pretty sure unless you’ve been getting education here, you are still in early high school. And also it will give me an excuse to hang out with you. One can never have enough excuses.”

“Sure,” Junmyeon hops down from the shelf, sitting on the stool to scan through the books he chose. “And I’ll help you with ethics.”

Yixing’s jaw drops in indignance, only more so when he sees the smirk he’s obviously hiding behind the book. “It’s not that I don’t _know_ ethics. It’s just that I don’t heed them. Well, the kind of ethics people like you do.”

“Maybe I can change your mind on more things.” Now Junmyeon’s looking at him. “Didn’t I on _love?”_

It’s not the topic of love, but the knowing way that he’s being stared at that makes Yixing redden, an uncontrollable smile creeping up his face.

“Maybe.” He discreetly lifts up the book to cover his face like Junmyeon had, fixating on one word. _Material material material material material material material material material material material._

“Awe, you’re _blushing!”_ Junmyeon somehow sees through the book. Yixing lifts it up higher.

“No."

“Oh? Let me see, then.” Suddenly, Yixing feels a presence, and then looks down and rightwards to see Junmyeon now kneeling in front of him. Two warm hands gently settle on his, and all Yixing can think is _material material material material material material material material material material._

The book is lowered and Junmyeon’s face is _right_ there.

_Kiss!_ Yixing’s instinct screams. He immediately scours his brain for all of his knowledge on kissing. What Baekhyun had said: signs. Junmyeon is showing the signs. He’s looking at him. His eyes are pretty. His lips are soft. They look soft. They will be soft. He’s close. Like, very close. Maybe two fists-worth between their faces. Junmyeon’s his boyfriend. So why wouldn’t he want to kiss him?

Okay, so they’re going to kiss.

What now? Oh, yeah. The kissing part. It’s going to be really good. Don’t panic, Yixing. What did he say? Yes, lean your head sideways. Which way? Okay, left, left is good. Let’s go left. Fuck, _ouch!_

Unfortunately for Yixing, he is a little too jittery, because one too-quick tilt of the head and he’s suddenly got a burning whiplash. Even worse, he involuntarily swears too, leaving Junmyeon’s face to contort in a disappointed(?!) confusion.

“Huh? Are you–“

_SMACK!_

One moment Yixing is about to cry of embarrassment, but the next he is about to cry of pain. There's a fire on top of his head. A large book then falls into his lap, _thank_ _Randomness_ not on a corner and further down his thighs. Junmyeon picks it up before he can see it.

“What the…” He mumbles, looking up. Yixing does the same, but then regrets it because his neck stings even more. And now Junmyeon’s staring at Yixing, who is pained in two places from just trying to kiss him, and now Yixing is really really hot because he can’t read Junmyeon’s expression because the pain on his head is a little too much. Shit, is he sweating? How unattractive! Why would Junmyeon want to kiss a sweaty person?!

“I’m okay!“ Yixing blurts a little too loudly. “That– just hurt. My head. It hurt my head. That was really unlucky.”

“Yeah…” Junmyeon trails off. No one has to say anything to know the moment was ruined. That there will be no kiss. That Yixing is such a mess that perhaps they won’t get their first kiss for a very long time. Screw Randomness for making that book fall! Or should he be thanking it, because he was just about to embarrass himself _without_ the help of bad luck? Fuck this all!

“Um,” Junmyeon backs away, placing the book down and standing up with a small smile. The _polite_ smile. Oh no. This is worse than he thought! “Let’s go to E.” And now he’s leaving the situation?! “Come on.”

“Yep. When I’m good.” His voice emerges strained, Yixing brings his hand to his neck to try to relieve the spot.

Oh god, when Baekhyun said _awkward,_ Yixing didn’t think _this_ is what he had meant!

“Right.” Junmyeon’s tone changes back to something in control– no longer awkward. Yixing suddenly feels better. “Okay. See- _E_ you over there…”

“Hah. See what I did there?”

It’s not cute, it’s cringeworthy. (Why is he so cute?)

“Go away.” Yixing is responded to with a laugh, and when he hears footsteps distancing he kicks at the book. He lets his head slowly fall back onto the shelf behind him, looking up at the ceiling and hopefully not having another book fall on him. He brings the hand on his neck to his forehead, and at least he’s not sweating. But that was still _horrible_. He was so close, too! _God, what am I going to do?_

_“Barf~”_

All of the sudden there’s a noise that is _not_ Junmyeon nor any of the two and a half voices inside Yixing’s head. He flinches, jumping forward from the shelf to turn around and peek through the books where he had heard it. However, there’s nothing on the other side. Even when Yixing goes over there and tosses a book across the aisle to catch any invisibility. Nothing.

So, figuring that it may have been the half voice (and he _had_ locked the door to this place, hadn’t he?), he decides to catch up with Junmyeon. Maybe he should get over himself and tell him how he had really wanted to kiss him but just got nervous. When he turns to do these, however, he’s met with a giant wall of books obstructing his way. Like, taking up the _whole_ aisle.

Now that wasn’t there before.

“Baekhyun…” Yixing mutters, two and two connecting. That book falling wasn’t Randomness. It was _Baekhyun!_

Hoping that it isn’t loud enough for Junmyeon to hear and subsequently think he's accidentally agreed to date a psychopath, he talks low and fast to the stacks of books. “Cut it out, you bastard. Why are you even _in_ here?”

However, the illusion remains still and silent. Yixing swings his arm behind, up, and all around, not finding any Baekhyun making voo-doo hands towards the wall. So he must be behind it.

On more of an impulse than any rational thinking, Yixing charges into the pile of books. As he expects, he goes right through it, shouldering a chest and letting his own momentum do the job for him. Baekhyun crashes right into the wall opposite, several titles avalanching and dust flying up everywhere before Yixing can see his shocked face.

When the noise stops and the view clears, he can see Junmyeon’s worried face poking out from a distant corner. His eyes are huge.

_“What_ just happened?!” He hurries towards a definitely not inconspicuous Yixing standing over a mountain of books piled over sweatpants.

“I caught a stalker.” Yixing states, “I–“

_“Sehun?!”_ Suddenly, Junmyeon isn’t looking at the body under the books but rather back across the aisle, at the corner.

“Sehun, come out. I know you’re there.”

Yixing turns. To his utter surprise, a skinny leg steps out into view, then followed by the whole of Sehun. Although there’s no clear expression on his face, he’s looking down, at the pile of books, eyes a bit widened. So Sehun _was_ in on this too?!

“And Baekhyun!” Yixing points Junmyeon’s shocked face to the figure under the books. _“He_ was following too.”

_“No, honey,”_ Suddenly, there’s a hand on Yixing’s neck, tracing exactly where his whiplash was a moment before sliding across his shoulders. He flinches, barely suppressing a yell as Baekhyun smirks up at him. _“I’m_ right here.”

“W-What?” Yixing stammers, slapping Baekhyun’s arm off of him and stepping away (though he’s going to be killing him in a minute, because god that trip and that book and that humiliation _hurt_ ). “Then who’s…?”

As if scripted, a hand promptly wriggles out of the pile. Like a zombie exhuming from the grave, it starts to dig at the books around it, trying to get out. As Baekhyun approaches to help them up, Yixing thinks. The arm is tan and muscular... no one here is that combination except–

_“Jongjong!”_ Baekhyun exclaims, pulling him by the arm until he’s free from the books, now up and brought into a hug. “My mans, my dude, my _bro!_ Wuz' good?”

The tension filled mood is quickly intensi(on)fied when it becomes clear Jongin is _crying._ Yixing looks at Junmyeon who’s looking at Sehun who’s looking at Baekhyun who’s looking at Jongin, and then everyone is looking at Jongin, who’s blubbering while rubbing a spot on his arm. One of his eyes is really red and a pang of guilt resonates through Yixing.

“Hi– hi Hyung… I was just, just trying to say hi, and– and then the _books–_ they _fell_ on me…” He breaks down more once Baekhyun pulls him into his embrace. It's strange to think this is the same guy who goes on life-risking space missions to save the universe. Yixing looks to Sehun, who at the same time is rolling his eyes.

“Aww, _baby,”_ Baekhyun soothes Jongin by rubs on the back, then gently holding him out at arms length. “Do you know who did this to you?”

“Huh?” Jongin sniffs, wiping his nose.

Then, Yixing is suddenly reminded he’s here when Baekhyun turns to him, pointing. “Yixing did. Yixing-hyung pushed you.”

_What?!_

Well, not _what?!_ Because Yixing _did_ push Jongin, but it was an accident! Well, not an accident. Because Yixing _did_ push on purpose, but he had no idea it was Jongin! In fact, he had thought it was Baekhyun! Baekhyun who’s currently angled out of Jongin’s sight such that he can’t see the mirthful look in his eyes or the smirk on his lips. He thinks this is funny, doesn't he? Yixing'll show him what's funny...

“Yixing-hyung? You– you did?” Jongin looks like he’s about to burst into tears again.

“That–“ Yixing glares at Baekhyun, as if giving him one last chance to explain everything so he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t. “That wasn’t on purpose, Jongin. You see, I was trying to _hurt Baekhyun,”_ He hopes Baekhyun can hear how emphasized the words are, the promise in them, “but then he moved out of the way just in time for you to come in.”

“He means he’s sorry.” Baekhyun puts a hand on Jongin’s shoulder, siding with him to look at Yixing. He's frowning but Yixing sees clearly the bout of laughter being suppressed.

Junmyeon tries to intervene, “Guys, let’s–”

“What? _No.”_ At Jongin’s surprised expression, Yixing quickly continues. _“No_ because it– it actually wasn’t my fault. It was Baekhyun’s fault. He moved out of the way so you could take his place. I wouldn't be surprised if he _deliberately–_ on purpose– sacrificed you.”

“What?” Tear stained Jongin seems to be considering this as he looks to Baekhyun.

“But– but Baekhyun-hyung wouldn’t do that.”

Or maybe not.

“Yes he would, Baekhyun-hyung’s–“

“Oh my _god,”_ Sehun interrupts. Thankfully, because Yixing was really on his last nerve (and straw to pull at). “Can you just stop being such a baby and get over it? You heard them. It was an accident. Go get an ice pack.”

The attention is quickly off Yixing and now on the tension radiating between the two nemeses. Jongin stammers, “I– I’m– I’m not–“

“What, can’t you speak, retard?” Sehun hisses. “You’re _seventeen,_ for christ’s sake. It was just some books, not an excuse for your attention whoring ass to–“

“YAH! _Sehun!”_ Yixing flinches at the yell, shocked to find the voice to be Junmyeon’s; sounding fully serious and genuinely angry. Turning his head, his boyfriend _looks_ genuinely angry too. It’s a bit scary to witness his eyes widened and brows furrowed and nothing angelically nice coming out of his mouth.

“He’s _crying!_ Could you be any more insensitive?! How about _you_ stop being such a brat and be kind to him for once!”

“…But–“

“But _what,_ Sehun?! He started it? That it was his fault? This blame game between the two of you has gone on for _way_ too long. Get over yourself!”

Silence.

_“Oooooooh shit,”_ Baekhyun whispers, eyes wide and lips pursed as he angles himself behind Jongin’s other shoulder, opposite of Junmyeon. Yixing’s surprised, too, for he had never seen such anger out of him. Not to mention saying something _mean!_ Holy shit, is he okay?

Sehun certainly isn’t. Now, the youngest looks like he’s about to cry. If things go accordingly, Baekhyun will be too once Yixing beats him up. Or, if things do not go accordingly, Yixing will be too once he fails in his attempt to beat up Baekhyun.

_“Sorry,”_ Junmyeon lets out a sharp breath, voice wavering as he explains. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. I was just _trying_ to have a peaceful morning and all of this happens so suddenly. I’m sorry, Yixing.” Oh, cool! He’s on the good side!

A sigh composes Junmyeon, but Yixing has a feeling there’s a lot more behind it. “First of all, _what_ are you two doing here in the first place? Why were you _following_ us?”

And that's when Yixing fully realizes both Oh Sehun and Byun Baekhyun have heard and seen every single word and action exchanged between him and Junmyeon since at _least_ the kitchen. AKA, he's in for a future of bullying. He can see it now: _awe, your virgin attempt at kissing was adorable,_ and a mimic of him jerking his head too fast, _you and your boyfriend seriously bond over_ ethics? _Such fucking nerds. You're so embarrassing, you kept tripping over_ everything. _You guys are seriously gonna go on_ dates _here? What are you guys, thirteen?_ But also, what about that? Yixing still refuses to call it a date because it's clearly spending time together in a very nice place we can't go to often, but is everyone else going to go away soon? And leave them alone? Please? 

“It was Sehun’s idea!” Like a child, Baekhyun points to the younger, whose face has gone blank, looking down at the floor again.

“Is this true, Sehun?” Like a mother, Junmyeon interrogates.

At the posed question, Yixing sees him break, and now Jongin _and_ Sehun are crying and the prospects of continuing the spending time together in a very nice place we can't go to often diminish further. Jongin nudges Baekhyun and gestures because since when does _Sehun_ cry? Though Yixing can't disagree that it doesn't look weird on him, seeing the wetness shining in his eyes with the scrunches of emotion in his features. It’s almost cringeworthy. 

“My god, _Sehunnie,”_ Junmyeon immediately goes soft, rushing over to embrace him. Although Yixing personally wouldn’t have comforted him, he sees why Junmyeon would, as Sehun immediately melts into his arms and starts talking in hushed words he can’t hear.

Meanwhile, there are hushed words he _can_ hear.

_“Come on, dude, what do you want? A popsicle?”_ Baekhyun is currently whispering to Jongin, gripping onto his forearm (isn’t that where Jongin was just rubbing, too?). _“A brownie? Brownie popsicles? A bear shaped brownie popsicle? Marijuana? Just get us out of here, and I’ll give you anything.”_

“Baekhyun, _what_ are you doing?” Yixing inserts himself between the two, forcing apart the grip on Jongin’s arm. He grabs Baekhyun by the collar of his shirt, twisting his fist into the fabric.

_“Okay, fine,”_ Baekhyun is still whispering. _“Take us both, Jongin.”_

“No,” Yixing doesn’t whisper, “don’t teleport us both away, that wouldn’t be right. Instead, Jongin, get yourself out and go get an ice pack."

When Jongin nods slowly, Baekhyun explodes in protest, but it quickly hushes because:

_“and a smelly fish stick slick motherfucker like you–!_ Oh. He’s gone.” Baekhyun looks in vain to the spot where Jongin was just standing. Yixing finds himself smiling as he yanks him closer.

Junmyeon finally turns around with Sehun. Sehun being cuddled between Junmyeon's arms is quite the juxtaposition to Baekhyun being gripped by the collar of his shirt by Yixing's clenched fist. No one seems to care, though (except for Baekhyun who's two hands grab at Yixing's one, though it's a rather weak attempt).

"I'm gonna–" Junmyeon pauses when Sehun readjusts so he's not facing Baekhyun and Yixing but instead burying his head into Junmyeon's shoulder. "–Gonna go take him to resolve this, alright?" Yixing's heart sinks. The subsequent, "Yixing, we can meet up... later. Sometime. I hope." Doesn't do any help to alleviate it. Junmyeon's hopeless 'I hope' voice says enough. 

When the two of them are out of sight, Yixing diverts from his sinking mood and tightens his grip on Baekhyun. Baekhyun seems to snap back to reality as well and claws at his arm, nails for some reason kind of sharp, but Yixing doesn't care. If he's not going to get spending time together in a very nice place we can't go to often out of this, then he will at least get the satisfaction of beating Baekhyun up. Is this exasperation how parents feel when they're booked full-time with kids who ruin every single possibility of alone time (but perhaps without the domestic violence aspect)?

"You're dead. Though, before that, do you have any last words to explain _why_ you decided it was a good idea to stalk me and Junmyeon?" When the only response is two wide eyes and slightly parted lips, Yixing adds, "That wasn't really a question, Baekhyun. _Tell me._ Now. _"_

"I– I told you!" A bit of panic slips through in his voice, but perhaps part of it is the difficulty to breathe because the one instance Yixing doesn’t mind suffocating contact with Baekhyun is when _he’s_ the one doing the suffocating. "Sehun's idea! I simply offered my resources for a reasonable pay!"

"Pay?" Yixing's grip loosens a little. "What _pay?"_

"Entertainment~" Baekhyun grins confidently despite his unfavorable position, "Seriously, Xing, I haven't seen _that_ embarrassing of a flustered dweeb since– HEY! OW! THE HAIR! _STOP! YIXING!"_

Things go accordingly.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

What doesn't go accordingly, however, is Yixing not pre-planning the method of transportation of the sixteen titles he finds. A stressed stand-and-think holds him up for about five minutes at the library's exit, and then he just decides to split the load into two extremely heavy piles and toil one in front of the other like leap-frog and pray he isn't going the wrong way. This goes accordingly, as Yixing reaches his dorm with just a light sweat and that weird stare from Chanyeol earlier. Everything's stacked up right inside the doorway and then Yixing decides he can wash away his woe of not spending time together in a very nice place we can't go to often via unconsciousness.

What also doesn't go accordingly is the sharp raps on the door not even five minutes after Yixing lays down.

"Jesus fucking christ..." Yixing mutters an array of profanity as he gets back up on wobbly legs, trudging across the room and preparing to lecture whoever's at poor Yixing-hyung's door. But, the realization comes as his hand rests on the handle, there is also a chance it could not be someone at Yixing- _hyung_ 'sand just Yixing's door.

"Who is it?!" Yixing raises his voice loud enough so he's sure the other side hears. If there's no answer, that guarantees it's Minseok preparing to jump him. Or the person spontaneously and silently combusted, but this is less likely. 

_"Seriously?!"_ Comes in response. Upon recognizing the voice, Yixing's nerves fade away and he opens the door with an apologetic smile.

"Why are you _sleeping?"_ Is the second thing a discontent-looking Kyungsoo says.

"Um..." Yixing can't tell if he's simply being judgmental or if there is further meaning behind the agitated question. "Well, I am tired, and that's a sign that I should sleep so I function well, and I–"

"I didn't mean it literally, smartass." Kyungsoo completely disregards common social etiquette and pushes past him into his room (what a heathen!). He doesn't find interest in any part of Yixing's mess of a room except for the two stacks of eight books lined up in the cove of the doorway.

Enough moments of Kyungsoo looking at the stacks, and then to Yixing, and then to the stacks with pointedness, and then to Yixing with pointedness, and he learns that Yixing truly doesn't know what he's getting at so he sighs harshly and says, "Do you remember what I told you to do _after_ getting the stuff?"

He looks genuinely annoyed and Yixing feels a bit bad to say, "No."

Kyungsoo's lips thin. "Well, I said to come find me _right after._ And that I would be waiting."

The rest of the direction recalls as Yixing releases a drawn out, "Oooh... My bad." And what was he thinking, anyway? That getting the books was just for them to sit in his room and look pretty? He really does need some sleep...

"Yeah, _your bad."_ Kyungsoo squats down to place either hand under either stack of books and then, to Yixing's utter shock, fluidly rise right back to a stand. It takes a moment to also recall, right, Kyungsoo has superstrength, but the sight of the smaller boy easily carrying what Yixing spent toiling over half by half is just a bit bizarre. "So I watched an unnecessary forty-five minutes of you tearing Baekhyun's hair out and dragging all these damn books to the _wrong place."_

"I would argue tearing Baekhyun's hair out was necessary." Especially given he promised to never mess with him and Junmyeon again! "And that, if you were watching the whole time, it's your fault you did not come stop my mistake earlier."

Kyungsoo's expression falters in a lost argument. "Well– I was busy. I trusted you would come soon. Trust- _ed._ Now let's go."

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Kyungsoo continues to be grumpy the rest of the way to the record's room, blatantly ignoring Yixing's inquiries of how his day was and what dd he do yesterday and the day before and only talking to him when he asks, "Why is your hair like that?" And Yixing answers, "Because I wanted it to be like that." And Kyungsoo responds, "Why?" And Yixing responds, "No reason in particular." And Kyungsoo squints and responds, "Your _boyfriend's_ 'no reason in particular'?" And Yixing reddens and doesn't respond and Kyungsoo adds, "You know that if you won't tell me the truth, the camera's will." And Yixing decides to trip him which makes a loud noise that fades into dead silence that remains the rest of the tension-filled walk there. 

Upon entering the room, Kyungsoo haphazardly drops the books onto a nearby table, letting Yixing to pick up the ones that fell to the floor as he goes straight to the other table and computer.

"I didn't mean to trip you." Yixing mutters as he chooses four titles at random to scan through. 

His dialogue continues without a response from Kyungsoo. "What are you looking at?"

"Where's the chair?"

"If it will make you less irritable, you're welcome to trip me too." This Yixing says as he places the books on the desk. "Though it seems you have been in a bitchy mood for a bit longer than that."

“I’m not. I haven't.” Kyungsoo denies as Yixing locates and goes to grab the chair. Kyungsoo changes his mind before he even gets back. “Okay, I am. I just haven't been able to find the stuff I’m trying to find.”

“That sounds cryptic.” Yixing remarks. “I had a bad morning too, but I still got everything we agreed on. And I also had a bad yesterday. And a bad the day before yesterday…” He doesn’t want to discourage Kyungsoo, but he wants to A) let off this stress and B) make sure they’re still clandestine. Besides, he’s giving him a strange look, so he explains, “Last night I went with Baekhyun to RF, and I would say if the discussion was catered to an egotistic purpose, it was very interesting, and perhaps a bit worrying, since–"

_“Yixing.”_ Kyungsoo suddenly sounds very serious, eyes a bit widened. What? Why is he looking at him like that? What did Yixing do now? Kyungsoo then looks down to his bracelet in obvious emphasis, pressing the screen to reveal the time. Only then does he put two and two together.

Right. Kyungsoo turning the bracelets off was a one-time thing. He is not supposed to be talking about it. 

Heat rushes to his face as he looks down to his own bracelet and then back up to Kyungsoo's frustrated expression. With everything going on this morning and the expectation to repeat the other night but just with different information, he had completely forgotten! Even with the whole life-threatening principle, the meeting last night, he had still _forgotten!_

The _‘oh’_ look on his face turns into a sheepish smile in hopes to make it more lighthearted, to assure himself it’s just a silly mistake, Yixing, it’ll be fine, but Kyungsoo just scoffs and turns back to his work. On the table is an old-looking article with an intriguing title:

_UNORTHODOX SCIENTIST DISCUSSES WHY HUMANITY IS AN IMPOSITION_

When he picks it up to explore more, however, it’s quickly torn from his hands. Kyungsoo tosses it to the other side of him, pointing to Yixing’s pile of books.

_“Alright,_ got it.” He mutters as Kyungsoo returns to his work. 

But suddenly, whatever Kyungsoo is doing on the computer looks very interesting. Yixing leaves his hands lingering on the book as he hovers closer, looking at the screen. Of course, he can’t identify much of anything going on, but he knows Kyungsoo is searching through documents because of the tag ‘.doc’ after each file. He opens one, and Yixing figures out that he’s looking at some sort of input and output data of some technology he only knows as ‘G53NEI281AF’. The inputs and outputs include the same word: _ACTIVE,_ and before every input is a time stamp. Yixing guesses Kyungsoo’s checking for errors of something, considering he had said he couldn’t find what he was looking for.

Once he scrolls all the way down the page, which isn’t that long because the only changing variable is the time stamps, Yixing realizes Kyungsoo hasn’t moved the cursor for a while. It takes one side eye and then a double take to realize he’s currently receiving a scrutinous glare. Yixing mirrors the look as he slowly backs up from the computer screen, diverting to the book. _RF QUANTUM FUNCTIONS (ADVANCED)._

Movies and stories lied: criminal investigations aren’t fun. Especially when you’re terrified of the possible criminal.

_Just get it done now, rather than later,_ Yixing directs himself as he opens to the first page, but then he decides that it would be more useful to look through something he’s guaranteed to understand. He grabs RF’s basic functions and EXO’s general overview. Although they’re simple, they’re likely to include the big picture ideas such as an ultimate goal. The table of contents of the first confirms this:

_RF QUANTUM FUNCTIONS (BASIC)_

_BY: EUGENIO VERMILLION_

_WELCOME TO RF. . . . . . . .1_

_BASICS AND ESSENTIALS OF RF. . . . . . . . 7_

_SUBATOMIC AND ATOMIC (DISCRETE VARIABLES) COMPLEX. . . . . . . . 40_

_SUBATOMIC AND ATOMIC (INDISCRETE VARIABLES) COORDINATION. . . . . . . . 98_

Forty pages is something Yixing would usually skip on homework. Not skip the whole thing altogether, because that’s simply a bad idea, but skip as in gloss over the main ideas, using context clues or going back to a certain section to figure out the rest in class. Perhaps this method is reproached by his mother and critiqued my Namjoon, but Yixing still graduated high school. 

But now, if Yixing misses a single word, he may suffer. This thought discourages him greatly, but also terrifies him to the point where he wants to do it right away. Plus, the author is the creator of EXO himself. Yixing _can’t_ be lazy with this.

However, right as he opens the first page, a loud _BEEP_ sounds.

Yixing startles, as does Kyungsoo who sounds like he accidentally hits something. But, citing memory, he calms himself down quickly. This has happened once before. It wasn’t them. Besides, it was in synchrony with opening the page, so it must be just an effect, such as the fire-books or the pop-up Baekhyun. 

Or, maybe, Yixing discovers once he doubts his momentary reassurances and looks to his bracelet anyway, it’s _because_ he had opened the page that it’s red and beeping.

_ANNOUNCEMENT: AGENT LAY TO **ROOM_EXP_19306559** IMMEDIATELY._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> woooo spooky scary cliffhanger ending 4 halloween
> 
> have a spooky scary week!!


	37. Imminent Death (The Announcement)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing and Kyungsoo are faced with their wristbands' "announcement".

**AS QUICKLY** as it had vanished, fear returns, this time heightened, because _this has happened once before._

Yixing immediately begins to tell himself _no, it’s just a coincidence._ That things like that don’t happen, that humans – which he is – are over-dramatic and jump to these ridiculous assumptions without conclusive evidence. Just because they are in the same exact situation of Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao in which they’re conspiring against RF and then suddenly get called to a room doesn’t mean that it’s because RF has found them out and is now going to kill them. That’s only a movie thing, and a thing the characters would think because they’re so absorbed in the illicit things they’re doing that their head isn’t down in reality, where it’s just a coincidence. A simple coincidence. 

So why is his heartbeat, his breathing, a sudden blockage in his mind– why’s it all telling him otherwise?!

Yixing looks to Kyungsoo, hoping to grasp some solace in his composure. However, he seems just as afraid as Yixing, wide eyes staring with intensity at the red _ANNOUNCEMENT: AGENT D.O TO **ROOM_EXP_19306559** IMMEDIATELY _as if willing it to go away.

“It’s just a coincidence, Kyungsoo,” Yixing says not because he believes it but to convince himself and convince that look off of his face, because if Kyungsoo’s worried, then Yixing is _terrified._

“Yes.” Kyungsoo’s voice is tense. “A coincidence… there’s no way…” He looks up at him. “I did _everything._ There’s no way.”

Yeah. There’s no way. 

Except for the possibility of human error. The possibility that Kyungsoo despite his mistake that had killed the three has again slipped up, easily letting the technology access their discourse. Because really, what _is_ Kyungsoo other than a few cool hacks? What is a seventeen year old against a super technology with more information than he's ingested in his entire lifetime? There's no way he can beat RF. And there's no way RF didn't catch what Yixing said two minutes ago. It’s simply _unrealistic_.

But maybe reality isn’t what either of them need right now.

“There’s no way.” Yixing agrees, legs jelly as he tries to stand up. It's being spoken but he doesn’t truly agree. Neither of them do. Everything repressed from external reaction fluxes inside, and his body does everything it can to detriment RF’s calling of _IMMEDIATELY_. It’s suddenly difficult to walk, to breathe, to think, everything slows while his heart speeds up. _What’s happening?!_

No. He knows what’s happening. He’s panicking. Just panicking. He’s not going to die– not from the panicking, at least. Yixing tries to ground himself with something, something close, his bracelet. This is quickly regret, because it then lets in all of the second guessings and _what-ifs,_ which are loud yet stifled by a blockade of blankness. It’s as if he’s in an empty room, a paper-thin wall giving way to the one of screams next to him and it’s so loud it hurts. And to complicate further there’s still incredulity, disbelief, because even if this is all true… Yixing dying? Yixing? _Dying?_ He can’t. He can’t fathom it. No…

“Hyung, are you okay?” There’s suddenly a hand on his shoulder. Yixing jumps from his trance, stabilizing himself on the wall again. He stares at Kyungsoo for a couple seconds, trying to make him out in the darkness. The lethargy returns and everything goes slower and slower, he’s sinking. Why is the room so dark? It wasn’t this dark. Has his vision always been this narrow? Why can’t he…

He’s not going to die… he can’t lose everything forever… he can't fathom it. No...

His throat is dry. _“I’m…”_ Yixing decides to ground himself on Kyungsoo, his forehead, hairline, thick brows, left shoulder. But it’s almost too dark to see any of it. He needs some light, air. He’s going to suffocate. Electricity grows in his chest and he can’t _breathe._ He’s going to drown in this… he's tired, but too afraid to be tired…

“I need– light.” He voices as he starts towards the exit, almost losing his balance despite nothing to trip on. Once the door is open, revealing a lighter hue of reds, reds like his bracelet, but more light, there is space to breathe.

Simply exiting the room and leaning himself against the wall feels so, _so_ refreshing. A hand to his forehead tells him he’s sweating, picking up moisture as it drags off of his face. He sinks to the ground, still keeping his head up as he takes in air. His chest heaves as if he had been underwater.

 _“Yixing,”_ Kyungsoo says for what can't be the first time, because it’s stressed, rushed, as if in a sequence. Yixing’s eyes are closed, but he knows Kyungsoo has gotten close to him, placing the back of his hand on his forehead as if checking for a fever. He isn’t sick though. He’s going to be okay. He wants to tell Kyungsoo this, (and he _has_ to go to the ‘announcement’, doesn’t he?), but what feels best right now is to just stay here, keep his eyes closed, and regain all his senses.

So this he does, and it’s maybe a minute before Kyungsoo stops prodding and just sits down next to Yixing, touching shoulders a reminder that he’s there. The beeping of the bracelets becomes so redundant that it fades into the background, silence becoming louder. When this happens, more worry fills him, but not overwhelmingly. He eventually opens his eyes to a familiar ceiling, wiping his forehead dry as he turns to Kyungsoo, who looks rather calm for the situation.

And Yixing stares. What is he supposed to say?

“I’m sorry.” He decides to apologize, because his freaking out had probably freaked out Kyungsoo even more. 

_“What?”_ Kyungsoo’s eyes go wide, “Don’t be _sorry._ It’s not your fault.” Yixing would beg to differ, because without his stupid actions they wouldn’t have been called for this ‘announcemet’ that they’re currently supposed to be at and therefore he wouldn’t have panicked and gotten Kyungsoo all worked up, and he’s about to say this until Kyungsoo goes:

“I have them too.”

Brows furrowing, Yixing clarifies, “Have what?”

“Panic attacks.”

“Oh.” So _that’s_ what it was. “Why?”

 _“Why?”_ Kyungsoo scoffs like it’s the dumbest thing he’s ever heard. “Because _maybe_ being _forced to save the universe_ is just a teensy bit stressful, Hyung.”

“Sorry, stupid question.” Yixing then looks down to his bracelet, which is still flashing the same message. All of his senses remain intact, but he feels nauseous. He hasn’t even gone yet and he's _this_ freaked out.

“Are you ready to go?” Kyungsoo asks, oddly gentle.

“No.” Yixing answers honestly as he stands up. The prospect of being killed is not appealing to him, nor is it very fathomable either, but such coincidences happened that they can’t be coincidental. So what does he do? The answer’s clearly not have a panic attack.

“Idea.” He blurts because he gets an idea. “Someone else going too. Let’s find them first. Or just bring _someone_. _”_ If Junmyeon can make him feel safe, maybe he can make him feel safe also in the presence of RF.

“Alright.” Kyungsoo nods, “But it’s been about five minutes. So let’s get going, if you’re ready. Do you need anything?”

“No… Why are you being so nice?” It’s weird, but especially weird for Kyungsoo. He’s even more weirded out when the other takes his arm as they start, staying close to his side.

“Because I’ve gone through this. Several times. Too many times, actually.” A smile but they both know it’s not from anything happy. “So I know what it’s like. And I’m lucky enough to have help with what I go through, so I help others too.”

“Okay.” He’s pretty sure Kyungsoo means that he likes Yixing and has the knowledge to help and also the feeling of guilt of not helping so he helps (because perhaps it would actually be the weirdest if Kyungsoo had just pointed and laughed at him). He then asks, “Who helps you?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Yes it does. I just asked.” Obviously.

“That was code for _I don’t want to tell you.”_

“Why? Is it embarrassing, or something? Because it makes you vulnerable?” This gets a strange look, but Kyungsoo ends up agreeing anyway.

“Exactly.” 

“You’re already five foot seven. I don’t think a bit more vulnerability is going to change much.”

“I’m five eight. And a half. And I can crush your skull with my bare hands.”

“Oh…” He’s got him there. But at least he’s honest. Yixing will give him that and stop pressing. A bit of silence and he realizes that his bracelet has stopped beeping, and he looks down to find the lovely arrows pointing him in the right direction. They, however, are not on Kyungsoo’s bracelet, which holds the same flashing red screen.

“There aren’t any directions on yours.” He also realizes that talking is _way_ better than letting the silence sink in, the fear sink in. Kyungsoo looks to his wrist then up to him. He can’t be five foot eight and a half. Yixing is like five foot ten or eleven. The difference would be smaller.

“Yeah, I don’t need any directions. The system usually stops giving you them after a month or so.”

“It’s been like two months and I still get help going to the bathroom.” Not the main bathroom near the dormitories, but anywhere else he gets the helpers.

“Well, _do_ you know where the bathrooms are?”

“…Sometimes.”

“Then that’s why.” Kyungsoo says in a tone that easily could’ve been _then_ _that’s why, dumbass._ “But don’t feel too bad. Chanyeol had helpers for half a year.”

“I thought you like him because he’s smart.” He is, though. Maybe Yixing can help Kyungsoo out with his crush conquest with all the time he’s going to be spending with the guy. Given that they’re not going to be– _no,_ stop thinking about that. Conversation. Focus on the conversation. 

“Smart. Not good at remembering things. Shouldn’t you know that, Yixing-hyung? Or did you forget what just happened?”

He reddens, and thoughts again begin to gravitate towards the mission and everything else so he quickly starts talking again. “Yeah, you’re right… okay, I just want to talk about things because it’s distracting me. So this morning Sehun cried. In front of me and Junmyeon and Baekhyun and Jongin."

Surprisingly, Kyungsoo’s face holds recognition. “Oh, yeah, Jongin said something about that. But he didn’t tell me what happened.” Hopefully Jongin doesn’t still think it’s Yixing’s fault. “Sehun _never_ cries. Unless he’s alone, or sometimes with Junmyeon. Don’t ask me how I know that. Anyway, what happened?”

“So I was with Junmyeon and I–” _Not seduced! Not seduced!_ “–persuaded him into cancelling schedules and taking me to the library so that happened. But we did not know that Baekhyun and Sehun were following us the whole time under some sort of invisibility cover thanks to Baekhyun. But then I suspected it when a big book dropped on my head which really hurt,” _especially because Junmyeon was about to kiss me,_ “and then I went into this one isle of shelves and one moment it was open and then the next there was a pile of books blocking me, as in an optical wall or something…

“And so I decided tackling Baekhyun was the best course of action so I ran into the wall however I ended up ramming into Jongin who simultaneously teleported so he was thrown into the shelf and a bunch of books fell on him. Then I started to yell at Baekhyun and then Junmyeon came out because he heard the crash and started to scold Sehun who I didn’t even know was there until he said something. 

“And in the middle of that Jongin finally got out of the book avalanche and started crying and Sehun called him a baby and a retard and an attention whore and Junmyeon yelled at him. Like, _yelled_ at him, very loud and said some not so nice things… Yeah, that’s what my face was like too.” He acknowledges Kyungsoo’s big-eyed expression. “And then Sehun started crying and then Junmyeon took him away and I told Jongin to go get an ice pack so I could have solitude in beating up Baekhyun and then I had solitude so I beat up Baekhyun which included pulling his hair until he promised to not mess with me and Junmyeon again and then I brought the books back to my room and then you came and that's what happened."

 _“Jesus,”_ Kyungsoo replies. “All I did was wake up and get breakfast. And come to the room. And then Jongin showed up to ask what I was doing, and then he went away, and then he came back with a black eye–“ Oh dear. “–telling me something about Sehun crying. And then he went away.

“Also, you don’t need to worry too much. When Minseok and Jongdae got into a relationship, it was like that for them too. But it was more Luhan and Baekhyun instead of Sehun and Baekhyun, because Luhan was really close to Minseok. And comparatively Sehun is really close with Junmyeon. I’m guessing he’s just a bit afraid that you’re going to steal him. Junmyeon’s… the only person he really opens up to.”

That makes sense. Maybe Sehun feels the same way about Junmyeon, in which he can – in theory, unfortunately – tell the guy his every problem and receive abundant amounts of comfort and solace. This Yixing should probably talk to Sehun about, because although he is dating Junmyeon, it’s not like he’s going to ban him from being close with other people. But Sehun might not think that: he’s not only young, but he also doesn’t know Yixing very personally, so he’s most likely still a bit cold in his eyes. The older, perhaps intimidating boyfriend coming to steal away his best friend and only person he really opens up to.

After thinking about this all, Yixing replies, “Funny of you to tell me this when you’re the one who had announced it to everyone. Is this your form of atonement?”

Kyungsoo looks up at him and narrows his eyes. “An unwritten rule here, if you weren’t aware, is that if you don’t show up to a dinner we're all having together, you’ll be shit-talked. So no, it is not my _atonement_ , but just me being your friend. And also, on a related note, Minseok says you never put your laundry in the right place and it fucks up the M dorm cycle. And Sehun says you stole his favourite sweatshirt. And Jongin and Chanyeol think you’re scary."

“I…” _Because no one fucking tells him where to put the laundry!_ There’s literally _seven_ identical label-less baskets and each load is a guessing game of which won’t get everything shrunk or dyed pink. “I didn’t even know about the dinner. I was asleep.” Had it been Junmyeon’s fault, then? Yixing can see him feeling too guilty to wake him up… but still, Kyungsoo didn’t _have_ to reveal they were dating. “And in that case, I’ll be waiting for your atonement, then.”

 _"And in that case,_ you’ll be waiting for a long–“

“Hey, guys!” A voice echoes down the hall.

They both turn to meet an alone Jongdae, who smiles in greeting as he skips over. He wedges himself between their link, throwing an arm around each shoulder.

“Did you guys get an ‘announcement’ too?” He asks, and never mind about his first mission when he found out he didn’t have to be a field agent, Yixing has never truly felt the word relief until _now._

It takes a moment to come, because at first Yixing is focused on answering, but then is caught up in _wait,_ he thought he was going to go be killed, what? And then putting together that if Jongdae is going to the announcement as well, that means it really _is_ just a coincidence because Jongdae isn’t currently investigating RF for malicious intention. This put with Kyungsoo’s _There’s no way_ and his adamant refusal of reality brings him to the conclusion that this is just a very very terrifying coincidence.

“Yes,” Kyungsoo ends up answering for them, shrugging out of Jongdae’s hold. For Yixing, this unfortunately means that Jongdae’s now focused on him and the bro-hold becomes tighter.

“By the way, Xing…” Jongdae’s voice lowers and the playful glint in his eyes disappears and suddenly Yixing feels very threatened in the bro-hold. It's a second of thinking and he realizes _exactly_ what he’s going to say right as he mutters, “You know what happens when you mess with Minseokkie, right?”

Right: there's not just batshit crazy Minseok. There's also batshit crazy Minseok's boyfriend.

“Please do not electrocute me.” Yixing says because he knows it’s no use arguing the truth– or, at least, the fact that it was not _all_ Yixing’s fault and Yixing isn’t an evil terrible person. He remembers Baekhyun’s words, _Jongdae’s literally lovesick,_ and he also remembers countless instances of Jongdae defaulting to Minseok, Jongdae protecting Minseok, Jongdae fighting for Minseok.

“Electrocution will be the least of your worries, Hyung.” Jongdae’s smiling that evil cheshire cat smile. “But if you insist I don’t, then maybe I just will. It doesn’t seem _you’re_ below using someone’s own fears against them.”

Agitation boils in Yixing’s chest but so does what Jongdae said: fear. Anxiety crawls up his spine because the sensation of being shocked, no matter how miniscule, always explodes into a terror far worse than what’s actually happening; perhaps because it brings him into the past rather than the now. A couple more steps, the bro-hold tightening, fingers sliding to his back, and Yixing gathers a sudden strength to shove Jongdae off of him. It’s stronger than his exhausted body expects so he knows it’s the fear that sends Jongdae off his feet. Kyungsoo turns around and Yixing backs up into the other side of the hallway because _shit_ he didn’t mean to make him fall he just wanted him off and is he going to retaliate?

Contrary to the full-blown attack Yixing expects (after all, it’s what his best friend had done), Jongdae simply stands and brushes himself off. Kyungsoo looks between the two with obvious discomfort and Yixing wonders if Kyungsoo gets the same feeling whenever he’s shocked.

“You know, Yixing, I really tried to understand your side when you and Baekhyun were fighting…" Jongdae's eyes travel him up and down. "But seems you’re just an asshole in general. Do you _not_ understand how a phobia works? Or do you just not sympathize? He genuinely _suffers_ from that shit and the _least_ you could do is be a decent person and not send him into a panic attack. You’re so lucky you don’t know what that feels like. And how bad it is when literally everyone can have _so_ much power over you from just one thing.”

Agitation _burns_ in Yixing’s chest but before he can say anything, Kyungsoo interjects.

 _“We have a meeting to get to.”_ He grunts, “Let’s go. Solve this another time.” And Yixing’s forearm is grabbed and yanked without a hint of the gentleness from earlier.

Jongdae follows a couple feet behind and the whole rest of the walk Yixing is tense with the anticipation of a shock. His head, his neck, his back, his legs, it’s not something Jongdae hasn’t done before, but for some reason the prospect is so much scarier now.

Soon, Kyungsoo, who doesn’t show any outlook on the situation other than keeping Yixing’s arm in an iron grip, turns him towards a set of double doors that slide open upon approach. Despite the relief, Yixing still feels his heart rate speed up as he enters a meeting room. Even if it’s anticlimactic, with a simple holo-table in the center surrounded by those cool bean bag chairs and Minseok, Sehun, Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Jongin, Baekhyun, he begins to panic again.

 _No, not here._ Yixing thinks as soon as he feels himself start to sweat. He’s fine. He’s okay. Nothing is happening except for the outbursts of everyone because apparently they took very long and also something about Junmyeon and him.

Junmyeon. Yixing spots him sitting, though he becomes cognizant of his presence because he's the only one to flash a smile. Yixing is pretty sure he smiles back, but he isn’t so aware of himself right now. Instead he is very focused on calming down, which quickly turns into confusion because typically something with such a fearful buildup has a fearful result, and he almost feels like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. It’s also strange because he (and Kyungsoo) is the only one feeling this way. Everybody else is as they normally are and have no idea about any of this. Like Yixing was a week or so ago. 

So now he has to pretend like everything’s alright, because Yixing is not the person to pour his mood onto the whole group. Besides, even if he wanted to break down crying, there’s nothing he can really do about it. If he spills about RF, there’s a chance he’ll be killed on the spot. Or called crazy. Or called crazy and _then_ killed on the spot.

He wipes his forehead once more (relieved to not pick up moisture) before heading to the open seat next to Junmyeon, who’s talking to Chanyeol on his other side.

He goes to sit down, “Hey–“

But that’s interrupted by a suddenly appearing Sehun, who rushes himself onto the bean bag as if it’s musical chairs. He takes his time settling in, pretending to not notice Yixing standing there for an obviously stalled amount of time before finally giving him a once over.

“Oh, sorry. Were you going to sit here?”

First, threatening him because of Junmyeon. Then, stalking him with Junmyeon. And now this? Taking his seat next to Junmyeon? Yixing didn’t know sixteen year olds could be so bitchy. Perhaps he should just talk to Sehun right now, rather than later. It's clear whatever Junmyeon had said to him didn't do anything.

“Look. Well, no. Listen,” Yixing lowers his voice a bit because he’s pretty sure the whole room doesn’t want to hear his conversation. He leans towards him, “I get that you are protective, but I am not a bad person, and I am not going to do anything to him or you. I don’t care about the seat, but don’t be rude to me for no reason. I haven’t done anything.” More begs to come out, but Yixing stays composed because it’s not Sehun’s fault Jongdae threatened him and that he can’t sleep and that he has so much work and that RF killed three of them and that everything just fucking sucks right now.

This Sehun contemplates with a squint, intimidating visage revealing nothing until he comes to his verdict.

“Cool. Don’t care. Now go away. There’s a seat over there.”

That’s it. _That’s_ the verdict. Yixing’s jaw drops in indignance, for he had _literally just said_ for Sehun to not be rude to him for no reason! 

“Yah, did you _not_ get what I just said? To _not_ be rude?” Yixing tries that understanding sympathy thing and adds a, “Please?”

Which is to no avail. “What are you gonna do? Tell Junmyeon?”

“Yes.” And what about it? Junmyeon seems to have very good control of Sehun. Even if he currently isn’t noticing this obvious display of bitch. “That’s exactly what I will do.”

Sehun seems caught off guard for a moment, but quickly retorts with, “And I’ll tell him you kissed Baek.”

 _“What?”_ As soon as it registers, Yixing tries to play dumb, but he’s sure his initial face gave it all away. Why else would Sehun be smiling like a gremlin right now? 

“You heard me.”

“Yeah, I did.” He’ll still try to play dumb though. If anything, it’s Baekhyun’s word against his and everyone knows who’d win that battle. “That’s why I asked, because I heard you but I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never kissed anyone.”

Okay, that’s obviously a lie, but as Yixing remembers from an arbitrary search on quotes from Adolf Hitler some night at three in the morning: tell a lie and tell it frequently enough, and it’ll be believed. He seemed pretty successful with that for a while (especially considering how radical it was). But regardless, _why_ would Baekhyun tell someone about the kiss? That was something dumb, between them, and it doesn’t even count! And _Sehun,_ out of all people?! _Sehun_ who will _obviously_ use this as ammunition?! Just as Yixing begins to accept Baekhyun as a decent human being he always seems to do something to ruin that. Like today. Like right now. Even if Baekhyun’s currently engrossed with Jongdae, Yixing can see right through him. His evilness. Seeping from his very core. 

_“Mhm.”_ Sehun hums, resting his hand on his cheek. “Anyway, why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be grabbing a seat, _Hyung-nim?"_

More vexation comes, but as so much else right now, he suppresses it, leaving towards the seat between Chanyeol and Jongin. Jongin talks to Kyungsoo and Chanyeol might wave and smile but Yixing’s forehead goes down onto the table and stays there. His breaths warm the cool holo-glass and his head buzzes with sensations like heat and petrification, but everybody around him seems to alleviate any total panic. No matter the current individual animosity, the voices and laughs of EXO ground him in the here and now and he doesn’t have to be so stressed.

A couple minutes and a hand gently sets on the back of his neck and begins to rub his back. All his nerves disperse and Yixing soothes for a moment or so except that he doesn’t know who’s doing it. He sits up to find out, but when this happens, the hand quickly retracts and Jongin stares at him with wide-eyes as if he had expected him to be asleep. Why does he look afraid? Yixing’s trying to reason but Jongin quickly turns his back to him, resuming conversation with Kyungsoo. When Yixing sees a purple hue lining his cheekbone and circling his eye he figures it out. Guilt immediately seeps through him. _No, that’s not your fault. It’s Baekhyun’s._ Though it’s evidently not what Jongin thinks.

Inevitably, RF enters. The doors open with the mechanic sound, silent RF hovering in and up to the front of the table. Fortunately, she goes to the end opposite of him, so Yixing doesn’t get too anxious. It’s not that he thinks he’s going to be killed right then and there, but he’s suddenly insecure. Guilty conscience, per se. He knows he’s doing something bad, and although there’s a chance RF may not know about it at all, worry still permeates everything and he’s hyperaware. Thankfully, a robot doesn’t do much to provoke _oh my god, she blinked, does that mean she knows I’m guilty?!,_ rather just the ambiguity of what she’s focused on and thinking giving him anxiety.

It seems said announcement is, though not totally foreign, a slightly abnormal thing, because the room bursts in dialogue as such:

“Aye, wassup sexy!”

“Hi RF."

“Why are we here?”

“What’s this all about?”

“Good morning RF.”

“Chanyeol it’s three in the afternoon.”

“Is it another hide and seek tournament? Please say it’s another hide and seek tournament.”

“We don’t do hide and seek after your blatant cheating.”

“It’s not cheating! It’s not my fault you can’t teleport!”

“Is it Christmas time?”

“It’s _August.”_

“Surprise Christmas time?!”

“Which one of y’alls got a birthday?” At this one, Baekhyun looks directly to Yixing. And then it’s not long before everyone else looks directly to Yixing.

"October.” He supplies, though it still fails to get the attention off him.

“Oooh, how old you turning?” Baekhyun asks as if he is genuinely interested.

“Twenty.” The big two zero and he’s not even home to be yanked by the ear and berated about how he’s not in university and doesn’t have a high paying doctor or something job.

“So you _are_ the second Hyung.”

“No, that’s still Junmyeon. Hyung. Junmyeon-hyung.”

“Junmyeon is actually forty, he doesn’t count.”

“Hey!” Junmyeon glares at a straight-faced Sehun, who now gestures with wide eyes. 

“See? Don’t you hear the _wheeze_ in his voice? Time hasn’t been kind to you, Junmyeonnie. I’m starting to see wrinkles. I hope your old bones will last us until the Tree's filled.”

“Yah, I'll show you what these old bones can do!“

“If you can catch me, grand–“

“What do you want for your birthday, Hyung?” Chanyeol catches him off guard because _they get each other birthday presents here?_ How? Yixing thought this was a rather communistic setting, in which everybody has equal things. Perhaps they trade what they can find around. (But, the most important question– does this mean he _has_ to get everyone something for their birthdays and Christmas?).

"He wants a puppy."

"No, Jongin, _you_ want a puppy."

"No, _he_ wants a puppy." With enough passing moments of Kyungsoo's glare, Jongin lowers his gaze. _"I_ want a puppy..."

“A big fat smooch.” Baekhyun puckers his lips and Yixing averts his eyes.

“A big fat punch.” Sehun cracks his knuckles, and when the room goes silent (and Junmyeon stares, mortified, his hand comes off of Sehun’s ear), he quickly adds, “To your heart because I love you so much… _or whatever.”_

“Nah, nah,” Baekhyun shakes his head, “No smooches, no punches, no puppies. I know the _perfect_ gift! Junmyeon’s virgin–“

“Agents!” RF shouts with the same exact intonation she had when Yixing and Baekhyun had gone off-topic. “Now is not the time to discuss Agent Lay’s birthday gifts. But if you are curious, Agent Lay, you may come to me with any request and I will tell you what is and is not possible.” What if he asked for the truth? “And you may not ask for pornography.” And there goes plan B.

“You know, RF, sweetheart, I still think that’s a bit of an outdated–“

“Quiet, Agent Hyunee.” Baekhyun silences with a roll of his eyes and a spiteful mutter. “Anyway, why you all are here: I wanted to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances, the stay on Exoplanet will be extended until further notice.”

A moment of process.

“EPIC!”

“Unforeseen circumstances?”

“WOO!”

“YEAH!”

“Can we still do hide and seek?!”

_“No.”_

“AWESOME!”

“Until when though?”

“Until _further notice,_ dumbass.”

“What do you mean by unforeseen circumstances?” Chanyeol asks again. This time, everyone hears and realizes RF had not specified and quiet down.

Chanyeol's right: _Unforeseen circumstances?_ Yixing sits up straighter. Unforeseen such as learning there have been three murders at the place you’re kept captive at?

“There has been asteroid damage to some of the external layers of the ship that need repair. The material for this repair, however, is not currently in Exoplanet’s stock. Therefore we are to await shipments from other planets. Once you return to your work station you will receive more detail on this, Agent DohBi. And Agent Lay as well. Speaking of this, some of you will be receiving demands that have to do with this issue.”

“So does this mean hide and seek is a– ouch! _Kyung!”_ Jongin hits Kyungsoo back which results in a cat fight until Kyungsoo grabs both of his wrists and keeps ahold until Jongin lets out a, “Fine! I give up!” And then Kyungsoo pats his head and smiles victoriously at the sulking sun.

“Anyway,” RF continues as if the exchange hadn’t happened and everybody isn’t laughing. “I will first start off with this: Agents, this does absolutely not mean a vacation. Your ongoing and future tasks will still hold the same weight as they always have. There will be the usual punishment for any slacking except for if I have specified to you otherwise.” What _is_ this punishment, Yixing wonders? Though, will he really need to wonder for that long? “The punishment is a reduction of privileges until the work is completed, Agent Lay.” Okay, read his mind, nice, but what are considered privileges? A full thirteen hours of sleep? Or not getting murdered?

“And, speaking of you,” Yixing picks his head up. Everyone is looking at him again. “You will begin reporting to me every day individually for a check in, Agent Lay. You have failed to translate your completed questionnaire packet, make progress in your authoring task, and merely _open_ your books assigned.” Of course, this prompts a communal _ooooooh_ and snickers from the crowd (and “What else would she expect from him?” Yixing swears he hears from Minseok), but Yixing can’t explain why he hasn’t done any of this so all he can do is sit here and wish his hair was long enough to hide his red face.

It almost seems as if RF _waits_ until the teasing naturally dies down to continue. “Besides that, have better work ethic, and there may be more tasks for you, but I will default to Agent DohBi. DohBi, as mentioned, you will receive information on the conflict upon returning to your AC device. All necessary devices left on the Exoship will be delivered to you personally. Xiumin, Chen, Hyunee, and Kai, all of your schedules will continue as normal. D.O, expect a report on the ship’s damage. Xuanxu, expect a pause in your activities and potential manual labor. Suho, anticipate helping DohBi or D.O with the logistics of materials.” And this is when Yixing realizes what _is_ everyone’s job exactly? He – obviously – is acquainted with Chanyeol’s job, knows Kyungsoo deals with a bunch of codes and numbers, is familiar with Junmyeon always doing one ‘stocks report’ or another, but what about the others? Due to his lack of exploration, he hasn’t witnessed much of anyone else’s obligations except for conversations he forgets a day later.

“Is this clear?” RF prompts nods and hums of consent. “Then you are dismissed.”

Just like that, the room gets up to leave. Yixing snaps out of his half-awake daze and finds Kyungsoo. Are they to continue what they were doing? Yixing knows more information will make him feel more secure but he _really_ doesn't want to anymore. He weaves around Jongin to give a questioning gaze, does he expect they simply walk back to the records room? It seems Kyungsoo doesn’t know what to do either by the flustered way he stares at him.

There is, however, one thing that does know.

“Agent Lay.” The pair step away from each other as soon as the voice sounds. Kyungsoo rushes past him to find Jongin. “You are going to complete the manual translations right now. Please go to your dormitory to collect the question packet, and then follow the arrows on your wristband to the translation centers for further instruction. I also expect reading done tonight. I will trust you to your own time and space, but if I do not see it, you will receive an invitation to do it under my personal watch.”

Kyungsoo leaves the room without a second glance back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> This was a baby chapter, basically a continuation of the last scene. Hope wasn't too tedious! Also yes I clickbaited with that chapter name nothing died here except Jongin's hope to play hide and seek :( Have a good week!


	38. Yixing's (Actual) Suffering Continues Blah Blah Blah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How life in EXO worsens for Zhang Yixing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW/SPOILER:
> 
> physical violence

_Why is heroism an obligation?_

**WAS THIS** the way Yifan, Luhan, or Zitao was thinking when he discovered RF’s bad intentions? Most likely not. Most likely, if they were normal idealed individuals, they would’ve been thinking about how although it will be difficult, they _have_ to stop RF. Not because they are afraid, nor hate RF with every fiber of their beings, but because it is _the right thing to do._

Of course, it is morally obligatory to save everybody from a malicious robot (or die trying). Although this is terrifying and could have been completely ignored, they still tried to do it. Obviously, it was done for more than just _the right thing:_ they also wanted to be safe, wanted EXO to be safe, and maybe there was that bit of subconscious reward for doing such a valiant thing, because self-sacrifice has been deified to the point that it’s innate. This ended in them getting murdered, ultimately bringing nothing but grief to EXO and perhaps regret and anguish in their dying moments. Hence, it elicits a conflict: moral obligation versus practicality.

To most, it is the duty of the strong to protect the weak, the knowledgeable to educate the ignorant, the rich to assist the poor. Despite the most conservative a mindset, communalism _inevitably_ becomes involved; to exhibit charity at least a little bit. It is in human nature to be ethical. Even if the strong may die protecting the weak, the knowledgeable may waste time educating the ignorant, the rich may go broke assisting the poor– it’s still _the right thing to do._ So, without much question, it’s done. This feat is only corroborated by everything ever told from generation to generation, in stories, movies: someone always ends up doing the _right thing._ Not necessarily because they want to, but because they _have_ to.

And it never goes further than that.

He _has_ to tell the truth. He _has_ to be kind. He _has_ to save everybody. He _has_ to be a hero. It often comes with its accomplice: because it’s the _right thing to do._ It’s such a weak argument yet no one ever questions its nebulosity.

Yixing _has_ to find out the truth about RF because it’s the _right thing to do._

Now how fucking stupid is that?! 

Any novice lawyer could shut this down with one word, because _no. No,_ Yixing doesn’t have to find out the truth to RF. What nobody understands is that there is _always_ choice. He can just stop. He can avoid excursions with Kyungsoo, halt the investigation, quell his suspicion; Yixing can simply stop doing this _right thing._ Even if it did cost him something like his life or the lives of others, he doesn’t _have_ to do this.

In fact, it would be better if Yixing did stop. Under the assumption that he and Kyungsoo are correct, that RF_05 is actually an evil robot planning to do something that’s bad, he should just let it happen. If he wasn’t supposed to know in the first place, then knowing shouldn’t stop anything. It can continue as if he were oblivious. Even if this malicious thing may ultimately affect him, EXO, Earth– it’s not like he could have done anything anyway. What is he supposed to do against a supercomputer? Yixing is not a hero. He’s a nineteen year old, barely an adult, and is equally as scared of his mother as RF.

He is not cut out for any of this hero stuff, especially considering his struggle to merely place morality over practicality: there is absolutely nothing stopping him from simply ignoring the situation, and absolutely everything stopping him from investigating. It is proven RF is not afraid to kill, so it would be far more beneficial that Yixing simply stop and let her continue whatever she is doing, no matter the cost. Though it isn’t even certain there _is_ a cost; at least, one that would affect them as greatly as investigating would (death). Heroism is stepping off of the path yet hoping to make it through the most dangerous jungle to somewhere _better._ Its probability is abhorrent.

But people like Junmyeon get into his head because apparently, this non-trekked path is better. It’s better to step out, to make a better way. It’s best to do _the right thing,_ because it is better for everyone in the end. Although Yixing can’t argue that perhaps that is right, perhaps there is a better, it’s so unlikely that he just can’t will himself into doing it without thinking that he’s a total idiot. It’s because of the stories and movies that everybody thinks this _better_ is easy to find, that being a hero only takes about two hours (or, in this case, a so-far 212056 words), a dystopian universe, and a love interest who somehow also saves the world with you.

Yixing is not a hero nor does he believe in this _better,_ yet he’s in a dystopian universe with a love interest – who isn’t currently saving the world with him, that’s the job of the nerdy best-friend, but is still there nonetheless – who would, if he were hearing Yixing’s thoughts, tell him there is indeed this _better_ and that as long as he believes in himself and tries he’ll save the world because that’s just what people like him think all the way until they realize they’re dying. Things like hope and passion are lights too bright and blind reality. 

_Why is heroism an obligation?_ Yixing begins to think as everything goes downhill.

Daily one-on-one’s with RF call for Yixing to report to **_ROOM_EXP_19306559_** at five thirty in the morning, but the time isn’t the problem. Yixing is awake. Yixing has been awake. The problem is the nerves that light up in her presence, a panicked state that doesn’t go away for the rest of the day or the rest of the night as if fear isn’t a finite thing. The sensation of being crushed, his body begging him to stop whatever he’s doing and sink into the floor, only strengthens. Strengthens when Kyungsoo hands him the books he had left in the records room, strengthens when he reads them instead of what he’s supposed to be reading, strengthens every word he utters to the robot, the ones he doesn’t say, strengthens when Kyungsoo manages to obstruct the security once again to search through countless hours of footage in attempts to find where Yifan and Luhan and Zitao destroy CF (it is not found, though Yixing translates the words “we’ll stop them, don’t worry”, relays everything discussed with Baekhyun and RF, and Kyungsoo cries for the second time). Yixing didn’t know his body could produce so much adrenaline that the most he is able to sleep in a week is arbitrary periods of hours he can find his boyfriend and use his safety to doze off (though it’s as if– no, it _is_ that– he senses whenever Junmyeon leaves the room or brings him to his dormitory because he wakes up as soon as he's alone).

The strangest thing is that despite Yixing’s exhaustion, he’s jumpier than ever. Kyungsoo wasn’t the only one a bit confused when Yixing practically screamed at a tap on the shoulder, or weirded out when Yixing gasped at an entrance to the the bathroom, or worried when Yixing flinched at mere contact (Junmyeon quickly forgot about this after a two minute hug, though). But Yixing, despite how slow his mind becomes, isn’t. He knows exactly why it’s happening.

The fact that RF has _killed_ people for doing the same exact thing Yixing’s doing right now may just be a little bit unnerving. A little bit unnerving in that every single second Yixing is hyperaware, as if he has finally registered the full extent to how closely he is monitored. He knows Kyungsoo had disabled the technology during their meetings, but he still can’t help but feel like he’s suspected, _know_ everything he does is regarded with utmost concentration. All these cameras and trackers and wristbands are like ropes, pulling every single movable part in his body taut until he's immobile except it doesn't get him horny he just feels a sense of imminent death (and yes, those _are_ mutually exclusive). In reality, somewhere Yixing knows that he’s being ridiculous for looking back down the hall after he turns the corner, because if RF were to kill him for suspecting it’d be with an easy shock of the bracelet, but he can’t help it. He doesn’t get how Kyungsoo acts normal, especially after watching his dead friends twice.

And as if it couldn’t get any worse, something _else_ starts to happen. Within the couple hours Yixing can't take the exhaustion anymore and passes out without Junmyeon, he goes somewhere. He arrives at a familiar narrow hallway with dim caged lights and thin air. It’s wet under him because he’s sitting in his own blood. It’s wet on his face because his nose is running and he's crying. It’s hard to breathe because the air is too thin and the hallway is crushing him and he’s being drowned with the liquids of his own anguish. He jolts awake in a similar state where he can’t breathe and he turns on all of the lights and sits in the middle of the room so nothing can crush him. Yixing knows it’s the stress that causes it, that pushes his brain to keep supplying the horrifying memory and trying its best to recreate the sensations, that charges straight through any kind of mental blockage he tries to make. Yet, there’s nothing he can do about it.

The lack of sleep thwarts any of his usual coping mechanisms. For one, Sleep, because why deal with the problem when you could just be unconscious, does not work because of established reasons. Talking to someone, _anyone,_ does not work because it’s a secret. Crying does not work because that just proves to himself how freaked out he is. A Reality Check does not work because the reality is that RF is a murderer and he _knows_ it. And Yixing’s personal favourite, Finding Out More About The Problem To Alleviate Confusion, does not work because he can’t search (anything that really _helps–_ the books from the library are useless) without gathering specific things at specific times under Kyungsoo's security thwarts. There’s no way out.

On top of this are the three tablets on top of his desk on top of each other with maybe five hundred pages each – virtually – on top of each other with paragraphs and lines on top of each other and the hangul characters often also on top of each other. On top of these are the fourth and fifth and sixth tablets RF supplies him _(“NEOTECHNOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE I” “INTERPLANETARY RELATIONS” “LINGUISTICS OUTSIDE EARTH”)_ that are not due in fifteen days but rather ten. His robot leader has taken advantage of all of his extra time, making it so if he even _wanted_ to sleep he couldn’t: there’s work to do. He’s given so much to read and it’s not long before he gives up on retaining anything, letting his eyes brisk through the pages and grappling onto the slight relief as he goes from 1 to 10, 10 to 100, 100 to 199…

Yixing knows he’s a disappointment. RF makes sure to specify it – in sophisticated robotic terms, of course: _I had projected at least thrice the work output from you, Agent Lay –_ every morning Yixing says he hasn’t worked on that ‘authoring’ piece, forgot to do X and Y and messed up Z and W. He doesn’t understand what RF’s goal is when, as a consequence of this, he receives smaller writing projects to do every day, manual translation tasks where he has to press buttons for hundreds of languages, more reading– it’s as if the robot wants every awake hour (which, as of recently, is just about _every_ hour) of Zhang Yixing to be occupied despite the horrifyingly low product quality this avails.

The only positive of this all is the one freedom amongst a thousand constraints: no more training with Minseok. It’s not official, as RF will always ask him about his training and it will still be on his wristband, but ever since he and Minseok had gotten into that fight his trainer won’t spare him a single word. It’s sometimes a bit terrifying, such as when they run into each other in the bathroom and the glare is a glare like no other, but for the most part Yixing can easily avoid and slash or ignore him. This strained relationship also results in Jongdae hating him as well, but that is fine because he doesn’t physically harm Yixing despite his threats and Yixing never particularly liked Jongdae anyway. Baekhyun is a buffer zone between the two parties, meaning he still likes Yixing (or he is a really good actor) and shit-talks Minseok and Jongdae to him, though Yixing doesn’t open up again like he had the night they met with RF. RF doesn’t press him to train.

Overall, this means that Yixing has more time to suffer in other ways. Work and hypothesize things he shouldn’t hypothesize and try to fall asleep and wake up from nightmares and promise himself to not fall asleep again and produce worse than mediocre writing and read things he doesn’t actually take in and eat a lot because for some reason he starts to lose weight and meet with RF and work in the AC room with Chanyeol and the cushion with the indent and be constantly anxious and, the silver lining: locate Junmyeon and on the likely chance that Junmyeon’s current activity is stationary cuddle up to him and be complimented and held and pet and safe and loved and maybe asked worried questions but Yixing’s too tired to answer them just like how he’s too tired to talk to him all that much anymore and he passes right out.

In fact, Yixing is really too occupied to spend much time with anybody besides who he sleeps with and who he works with. He even, besides the night they go to investigate the cameras for the second time, barely sees Kyungsoo. Chanyeol still remains rather awkward even when they become comfortable with each other. He either takes the _Hyung_ status far too seriously or for some reason Yixing is just intimidating, because despite the embarrassingly poor work he does and the several instances of dozing off, Chanyeol still treats him with the utmost respect. This makes it especially uncomfortable when Yixing is finally forced (“Agent Lay, I am going to lock you in this room and you are going to finish that piece.”) to finish the ten days late writing on Government and Systems of Leadership and then is subsequently forced to share it with Chanyeol for peer-review (god, haven’t heard that one in a while).

“Er… Hyung…” The past ten minutes of furrowed eyebrows and thinned lips finally manifests its dissatisfaction in a strained hesitance. Chanyeol reaches the bottom of the document and corrects yet another thing before sitting back. His eyes stay glued to the laptop(ish because it only has like three functions) device. “It’s… it’s a bit…”

 _Mediocre, pathetic, poor,_ Yixing wonders which adjective is the most fitting for the twenty five thousand words that hold almost no substance. Not only is it ridden in grammatical and spelling errors he couldn’t be bothered to fix, but he had also, syntax aside, not contributed much to the actual conversation. Chanyeol’s part introduced the topic from the beginning of humanity: apes living in groups, animalistic senses of leadership, apes becoming humans, humans still living in groups, groups needing leaders, and so on. This delves into the history of ways humans had organized themselves and how it evolved throughout time. After that, he had began to present everything seen present day, most pertaining to the battle between capitalism and communism– individualism versus communalism, per say – and that’s where he stopped. Yixing had thought he should restructure the piece so it goes over all of the modern day systems before delving into the battle between capitalism and communism, because it can be tied to its more broad definition individual versus group, and also relate to Chanyeol’s introduction, but he’s pretty sure he had just kept talking about capitalism and communism and repeated what Chanyeol said but in other words.

“I am sorry.” Despite the aversion to all this work in the first place, guilt always nags at Yixing when Chanyeol’s smiling but it doesn’t reach his eyes and his tone of voice gets delicate. Chanyeol works so hard, Yixing has realized. There’s a reason he never saw him around much before. Now, Yixing is awake just as much as Chanyeol and is given just as much to do, but in his case it’s suffering instead of being a natural workaholic. Hence, he still feels bad when he knows Chanyeol’s going to have to fix whatever he had done, just like he does when he takes up a task because Yixing has no idea how to do it.

“I, actually…” And maybe lying to Chanyeol won’t be the greatest morally, but it will save a damaged relationship and explain something in a way that won’t jeopardize his safety (RF killed the person who used to sit in this cushion and that’s just a bit worrisome so I haven't been to focus on much else). Chanyeol’s big eyes finally come off the screen to look at him.

“I, actually, uhm,” Yixing clears his throat, “didn’t really think it would matter, but I guess it shows here so I should explain… my Korean isn't that great. Well, writing wise. I can speak fine, though in my opinion I think I sound a bit robotic sometimes... I only moved from China a couple years ago. I wasn't expecting to be forced to write here.”

And man, sometimes being the minority is _great,_ Yixing thinks as Chanyeol’s countenance falls into surprise and then sympathy. _Sometimes,_ because at other times it just makes you so much more suspicious to a certain robot so she burns your wrist so bad you keep getting nightmares.

“Oh, Hyung, I– I didn’t know…” Chanyeol’s voice softens, “I mean, now I guess I can– …” For some reason, he cuts off and goes silent. Yixing’s brows furrow in confusion, eyes flickering up from the screen to him, and then he realizes Chanyeol’s doing an all too familiar thing.

Yixing looks to find his wristband red.

 _What?_ Is Yixing’s first thought, staring at the vivid color that shows up when he lies. Adrenaline spikes through him, but there’s no beep nor any shock for at least ten seconds, and then it reverts to black. 

It’s probably some of the most awkward moments of Yixing’s life, looking up to Chanyeol looking at him and then they just stare at each other for what _has_ to be at least a minute of absolutely dead silence.

Yixing must stare hard enough because Chanyeol gives in first, eyes falling to Yixing’s wrist yet again and mumbling, “When you’re on the job or talking about stuff that has to do with work they’ll still show when you lie…”

“Oh.” Yixing’s eyes widen and his face heats up and never mind it fucking _sucks_ to be the minority it only brings him pain. Until now Chanyeol has refrained from showing even the slightest agitation with him, and this he still does, though Yixing can see there’s a struggle. Quite frankly, it’s a miracle he hasn’t snapped. Yixing would have long ago.

“Yeah…” More silence comes in and Yixing gets a very strong feeling he’s going to have to explain. Although he could 1) wait it out until Chanyeol can’t take the silence and speaks again, he would rather 2) do it himself because he maybe A) feels even worse and B) doesn’t want to have Chanyeol dislike him because then that will make working even more draining and there are already several others that dislike him.

“Okay, I am sorry. Again.” Chanyeol still doesn’t look up from his bracelet and Yixing tries to not take it personally (though he should– he’s the one who lied, after all). “I came up with that because it's less… shameful, than the truth which is I have been going through a lot of… mental stuff, recently.” His bracelet remains without color and Chanyeol finally looks up.

“Oh– what– what do you mean?” His voice loses any suspicion and relief washes through Yixing.

“Well…” It’s a bit uncomfortable to tell this to Chanyeol when he hasn’t even told Junmyeon, but it’s better than letting Chanyeol think he’s just lazy and doesn’t care (which he is, but not fully!). “Anxiety stuff. Haven’t been sleeping. Just… brain going to shit. And therefore producing shit.” A gesture to the device.

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Chanyeol replies. “I– I know what you mean, it’s okay, I understand… there’s medicine for anxiety here. Unless you already take what you took on Earth…?”

“No. I don’t take medication. I don’t need to. It’s not from something wrong internally. It’s external.” Yixing quickly concludes the discussion before Chanyeol can try to dig any deeper. But had that itself just been too much? What's RF going to make of that? It's so hard to be so careful when he's so tired. “So hopefully I can get it to stop soon. But that’s why I’ve been doing so bad. I’m sorry. I will try to do better.” And maybe Yixing will intend to, depends how far guilt will take him, but he still brings his wrist behind his back just in case the wristband thinks otherwise.

Luckily, the movement goes unnoticed. Chanyeol is instead focused on either Yixing’s criss-crossed legs or the floor in front of him, he can’t quite tell, or maybe he’s zoning out like Yixing does though he usually does when he’s thinking about something really deeply so what is Chanyeol thinking–

The thought is interrupted when Yixing is suddenly enveloped in warmth. Chanyeol’s head tucks into his neck and – completely fried, to be honest – hair brushes against his cheek. It doesn’t throw Yixing off guard too much, Chanyeol hugs his members all the time, but Yixing is pretty sure this is his first Chanyeol Hug so he smiles and pats his back and for a second everything doesn’t seem so terrible.

It lasts a while, longer than the staring had, but when Chanyeol pulls back it’s straight to the laptop as if it hadn’t happened. 

“Alright– er– get better, Hyung– yeah…”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“…Yeah.”

“Y–Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Alright. _Ahem.”_ Chanyeol’s ears redden and Yixing notices him shifting away from him. He does the politeness of holding in a laugh.

Yixing almost considered this day okay until later when he was eating those space apples and minding his own business his bracelet did yet another thing he doesn’t like.

 _ NEW _ _! SCHEDULE: ZHANG YIXING TO **AUX_GYM_38191** AT 14:00:00EXT-18:00:00EXT + [XIUMIN] + [XUANXU] – WEAPONS INTRODUCTION TRAINING_

He reads it. And then reads it again. And then _weapons introduction training?_ What? Are they finally going to teach him how to use a gun? But, more importantly, _Xiumin?! Xuanxu?!_ Not that Yixing is afraid of a dwarf and a sixteen year old, he's not, but Minseok and Sehun are just the least bit off-putting. And also currently yield disdain with the fiery passion of a thousand suns towards poor Zhang Yixing.

The Only Positive of This All is stripped away once Yixing’s sneakered feet take step in the part he avoids of the place he avoids with the two people he avoids.

Like the gymnasium, the weapons section on Exoplanet is also smaller than the one of the ship. It makes up the size of four sparring rings, though a good sized section of the back wall is just glass in front of another fifty feet out to where a bunch of different kinds of targets sit. Acting as a barrier between this section and the athletic section are racks of more traditional weapons, being that of knives, spears, javelins, swords, crossbows, though Yixing doesn’t doubt every one of them has some kind of EXO special high-tec feature. Then along the two walls is artillery, each having a door into a smaller room that holds ammunition for such. In the open space is several different kinds of things to attack with and defend yourself from being attacked by. They’re lit by the fluorescent mushroom lights so bright that perhaps it’s a tactic to teach how to shoot blind.

In the very center of the room stands two of the Defend Yourself From Being Attacked By things.

“Hello Yixing.” Says the more dangerous of the two. Minseok doesn’t _look_ any different, he wears the athleisure he normally wears and he is still short and buff and has that stupid as fuck headband with the white stars, but something is off. Something. Maybe it’s phantom but Yixing feels tension radiating from the guy. His gaze is currently calm but _is_ it?

Sehun next to him is no relief. Ever since he and Junmyeon had gotten together the youngest treats him with contempt. His resting bitch face becomes an active bitch face around him and there’s always one thing or another muttered about Yixing, especially so after he threatened to tell Junmyeon that Yixing and Baekhyun had kissed. On top of this, any time Sehun joins Yixing and Minseok tends to be terrible anyway. Sehun is ruthless and cold as compared to Jongin, the only other who occasionally joins, is kind and supportive and does all these cute cheers.

“Hi.” Yixing says after a bit too long, taking his eyes off of the gun racks and approaching the two. He never brings water because Minseok always does that, perhaps his one merciful act, but when he glances to the bench he sees only two bottles.

“Don’t worry.” Minseok suddenly says as if he could read his mind, “There’s water for you.” And wait _can_ he read his mind?! “And, by the way, is this to ridiculous a time, Yixing?” Yixing looks back in confusion, especially the awkward word choice, 'ridiculous', and Minseok’s looking up at Sehun. “I don’t think fourteen’s too ridiculous a time, right, Sehun?” Sehun nods.

He's used that word twice. 'Ridiculous'.

The tone of voice continues awfully gentle. It’s _immediately_ suspicious. The kinder his words get the more concerned Yixing becomes. “And you’re okay with this training, Yixing, right? Do I have your consent? I wouldn’t want you to feel forced to do anything.” 

Minseok’s eyes become wider with the inquiry, smiling, and he looks like one of those dolls in the horror movies when they smile just before they kill you. Yixing looks to Sehun, whose straight face offers no explanation. Of course, Yixing knew returning to training after such a long – and deliberate – hiatus was going to be at least a little strange, but this? The complete vagary in behavior? Yixing knows it's intentional, Minseok's trying to get at something, but _what?_ Yixing hasn't had an actual interaction with him in _weeks._

“I… um…” He’s too tired to try to think of why Minseok’s being like this despite a nagging sensation in the back of his mind. Why does he feel like he _knows_ the reason behind it? Did they have perhaps a tiny interaction Yixing had forgotten about? Had he said something to him in this prolonging tired daze? “I... guess I am a little tired today, but if it’s about time I start to learn the weapons then I will–“

 _“Are you sure?”_ Minseok cuts him off. “After all, I wouldn’t want to see you suffer. Or embarrass you. That's not my goal.” He steps closer and reaches an arm out. Yixing has no idea what the arm’s going to do so he backs off, receiving a _mortified_ expression.

“Why, Yixing, do you think I’m going to _hurt_ you?” Yes! That’s _exactly_ what he thinks! This is clearly a product of anger. And Kim Minseok takes out his anger in two always sequential and always proportional ways: pettiness and violence. And if the pettiness has gone as far as to sweet-talk him with a pout... 

“How can I? I’m only four feet tall, aren’t I? I look like a ten year old anyway, no? And you can just _mention_ ‘bodily fluids’ and you’ll never see me again, right?”

Oh.

Oh my god…

He’s not…

“That’s what happens when you talk shit, Hyung.” Sehun’s smiling and Yixing quickly wipes his expression blank. “Don’t think you’ll get away doing stuff behind people’s backs.”

_He's just what~?_

_Nothing. Never mind._

_Come on~ Let it out. I won’t tell._

Baekhyun. Byun fucking _Baekhyun._

In hindsight, Yixing should have seen this coming. Baekhyun tells him what Minseok and Jongdae say behind his back, so why should he think it won’t be reciprocated? It just hurts a bit that Baekhyun still seems to have zero respect for him, that he’ll still tell Sehun they kissed (probably out of context, too, does Sehun know Yixing didn’t ask for it?) and he’ll still take Yixing’s stressed words and give him false solace while he goes and relays it to the very people he talks about, and that he thinks this is alright because he still beams at Yixing and plays around with him like they’re friends. But are they?

“I…” And now, here, with Minseok knowing every single thing he said _(_ _“it’s more than obvious I’m a vessel for some kind of insecurity issue.” "To make me feel like shit so he doesn't have to himself." “Maybe it’s that his only personality trait is being a big strong athlete, but even that’s undermined because he’s like four feet tall and runs and hides like a little girl at even the mention of bodily fluids_ _.”_ God, oh dear _god),_ Yixing is at a loss for words.

“Have nothing to say?” A thick brow of Minseok’s quirks. “It seems you have no trouble talking when I’m not there. Shall I turn around?”

“Only if you cover your ears, too.” Sehun seems to be getting a kick out of this. They both are. They’re both smiling and Yixing is more than uncomfortable because at any second he feels he’s going to be pummeled.

“Ah, gotcha. Tap me when he’s done!” Minseok actually goes to the point of covering his ears, so when Sehun stands there looking at Yixing expectantly, all he can do is let out another,

“Uhm…” 

“Is he speaking? No? He’s not speaking?” Minseok turns around with a nod from Sehun and uncovers his ears. “Why aren’t you speaking?”

“I…” Really want to leave. He _really_ wants to leave. But Yixing has done the glance-towards-the-exit far too many times. Minseok would identify it right away. Would they let him leave? Minseok seemed pretty adamant to not have him leave last time, until, of course, Yixing used his phobias against him, but now Sehun is here and that changes everything. Just like this kiss-up act that confuses everything further. When's the doll going to stop smiling and just kill him?

“I was angry.” Yixing decides the best course of action is to give in with an apology, no matter the frustration so intense he feels like he’s going to cry _(why_ would Baekhyun tell him that?! Did he _word for word?!_ It's not fucking fair, it's not fucking fair Minseok gets to be such a fucking assholeand the _one time_ Yixing gets back he's revenged a thousand times over. At least, that's what it seems it's going to be. What's he going to do to him? He won't hurt him, will he? It's not fucking fair, he should not be utterly _terrified_ of merely what his own member's going to do to him). “I’m sorry I said those things.” Hands folded behind his back, “I didn’t mean them.”

“Lies.” Sehun says too quick for him to even have processed what he had said.

Yixing’s jaw drops in indignance. “I–“

“Apology accepted!” Minseok chirps, grinning. “It’s okay, Yixing. I know how much of a struggle it is to be a decent person.” And that sentence alone tells Yixing his apology was absolutely _not_ accepted. “But, now that that’s over with, we’ll continue as normally, right? Especially after your long break. You must be full of energy.” This is said in the middle of Yixing’s yawn. Vertigo spins through him.

“Yeah…” Yixing replies because he’s glared at and at this point it’s not even worth it to try to… well, _try._

“Great! See you after a lap around Exoplanet. Sehun, you take him.”

Although he already knew, it's further determined his apology was absolutely not accepted when, upon arrival of him wheezing because for some reason Sehun decides to sprint and act all pissy when he can’t keep up, he’s permitted to get water but Sehun lifts it out of his reach and taunts him. When he finally gets ahold of it Minseok rips it away, takes a sip, and keeps it tight in his grip as he says: “Can’t reach? Funny, because it doesn’t seem you have any problem making fun of other people’s heights.”

It's also further determined when Minseok brings out a very familiar contraption.

“Planks. We’ll go thirty, one minute, one thirty, two, and so on.”

And it's also further determined when he falls and gets electrocuted and Minseok and Sehun laugh and Yixing refuses to go back and Minseok says, though it’s slightly fuzzy because panic constricts his chest and everything seems to zoom out: “What, are you _scared_ of it? Funny, because it doesn’t seem you have much sympathy for other people’s fears. Get back on.”

It's also further determined when for some reason (because aren’t they supposed to be doing weapons?) they _spar_ and Minseok has absolutely zero mercy. Within a half hour he’s given two nosebleeds (to which he's given a minute in the bathroom to tend to– there are unfortunately no secret passages in the walls nor a spoon to make them with), a black eye, countless places he know will be bruised by tomorrow, and _something_ wrong with his ankle.

“Get up.” His trainer says when Sehun does that thing that makes the _something_ wrong with his ankle. “I know you don’t want to be embarrassed, so I won’t baby you. Don’t worry, I know you’re a good fighter. Sehun, you can hit him when he’s down, too~”

Two hours of getting beat up and then Yixing _finally_ gets what he had come for.

“So, for your weapons introduction!” A cheerful Minseok says to an exhausted Yixing who struggles to stay standing. His heartbeat echoes throughout the rest of his tingling body and several sites of pain continue to ache. Sehun stands with his hands folded and that satisfied smirk he has had on almost the whole time. He likes this. Minseok likes this. Why do they like this?

“I know you don’t do long explanations,” All of the sudden there’s a pistol looking thing and a small box in his hands. “So we’ll jump straight in while I talk you through it. Come with me.”

“The weapon you have right there is the most basic one everyone starts out with,” Minseok says as he leads him to the back of the weapons room where the big glass wall is. Yixing finds himself with a limp and hopes he's staying still for this. When Minseok presses a button to the side, the whole thing pixelates and then disappears in front of his very eyes despite Yixing being _positive_ it was a solid. “It’s really good for perfecting your aim. If you can build accuracy with this, you can with almost everything else. Though the non-shooting weapons are a bit different. For those, you will have to be proficient with all of them, but on missions and for getting really good you can choose which one you want. If you even want one. Some of us just like the guns.”

“How many…” Yixing’s voice comes out scratchy because he had given up on talking back when he said he didn’t want to get back onto the plank contraption. He clears his throat. “How many different types of weapons are there?”

“Thirty two.” Sehun comes in with an exact answer. “And fifteen of each model.” How does he know that?

“Sehunnie here is really good with all of them.” Minseok reaches up to pat the youngest on the head. “He tests them, after all.” And then Yixing’s question is answered. (But who thought it was a good idea to have _Sehun_ on the weapons? He’ll obviously use this knowledge to his advantage).

“You test the weapons?” Yixing asks.

“I do everything with the weapons.” That sounds like a threat. Why does that sound like a threat? "So watch your back, Yixing." It _is_ a threat. 

Unlike any other time, Minseok doesn't nag at Sehun for the lack of honorific. He instead moves on, “Do you know how to load a gun?”

“No.” Nor should they be surprised. Yixing _couldn’t_ have a gun back on Earth.

Yet, Sehun still sighs disappointedly as he takes the box and the gun from him. “Watch closely.” He says as he does something Yixing does absolutely not watch closely at and then he has a loaded gun in his hand.

“Got that?”

“…Yeah.”

“And this switch.” Sehun snatches it back and points to a little switch on the top of it. Now that Yixing looks closer, he notices a bunch of small options like that all around the weapon. “Turns on aim helper. You’ll need it.”

“Okay…” When Yixing is handed back the gun, he turns the switch. Out of the gun shoots a purple light, which reflects off of Minseok’s shoe. (And, intrusive thought: what if he pulled the trigger?)

“Aim it at the target, stupid.” Sehun grunts, nudging Yixing’s arm so the gun is pointed towards the targets.

“And shoot.” Sehun adds after a couple seconds. “That’s _literally_ what the gun is for.”

Yixing ignores the attitude and points the weapon, he’s pretty sure he’s supposed to have two hands on it, and man, maybe he shouldn’t have kept ignoring the doctor saying he needs glasses, because he _can_ see the targets, but he can’t see any of the lines nor labels on them. The purple light only aids him in knowing his aim is actually _on_ the target. There are some closer and some further. Yixing chooses one about twenty feet away, the closest option there is. 

“Are you going to shoot?” Sehun says as Yixing pulls the trigger. The dialogue, however, is not cut off, because the gun is absolutely silent. The only way Yixing knows he had shot is when there’s a quiet but sharp _SPAT!_ over on the target.

No, not the target. The back wall. On a spot nearly parallel to the target he had missed, a spot on the wall lights up in a bright purple circle, enlarging and then shrinking until it’s completely gone. Yixing’s eyes widen because even if he’s on the verge of dropping dead _that’s so cool!_

“No offense,” Minseok prefaces something offensive, “but considering your athletic ability started low, I’m guessing this’ll take you awhile to improve, too. And speaking of that, how is your power going, by the way?”

 _My what?_ Is Yixing’s first thought which pretty much sums it all up.

“Slowly.” Slowly as in Yixing hasn’t even thought of the fact he can take nutrients out of stuff with his hands in at least a couple weeks, which is not even as bad as the whole month it’s been since he and Kyungsoo have sat in front of two fruits.

“Alright. So you’ll do one hundred shots a day, which should take maybe an hour.” Minseok then looks up to his side, “Does that sound reasonable for quick improvement, Sehun?”

“Two hundred.”

It seems by now Minseok has gotten out all of his anger. So, Yixing decides to advocate for himself, “I think–“

“And what if we tried five hundred? Would that take only a month for him to get up standard, then?”

“That’s really–“

“Probably. But you should do other kinds of accuracy stuff so he’s versatile.”

“Do you guys–“

“So five hundred of these daily, and then other drills?”

“Please–“

“Yeah. But make sure you get to all the weapons. And all the types of targets and skills. So he passes the test.”

“Test? What–“

“Okay, that sounds good.” Minseok grins and Sehun nods and Yixing wants to die.

However, he can’t, because Minseok claps him on the shoulder and says, “Well, you heard it. Four hundred and ninety-nine to go!”

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Hence, four hundred and ninety-nine Yixing goes. Minseok and Sehun sit down at his sides with their waters, giving unsolicited opinions and comments every shot and, the worst part of all, regulating whether he’s actually trying or not which makes it so Yixing can’t rush. Unlike Minseok’s prediction, this takes another two hours, though a lot of it was feedback (criticism((hate(bullying))). Yixing zones out and his shots get worse, but it doesn’t seem they expected any more from him, so he successfully alleviates his suffering just a little bit.

After taking his five hundredth shot, Sehun simply stands and leaves without so much as a goodbye, a sorry for the bruises and the ankle. Yixing, after unloading (because he was forced to admit he hadn’t been paying attention to how to load and unload so he was retold) and putting back the gun, goes to do the same, maybe go in the shower and cry until he passes out, but Minseok calls him.

“Yixing! Come here.”

Yixing’s burning legs carry him over with a slight limp. Minseok’s in a split reaching out towards one leg as a stretch, but Yixing doesn’t want to sit down for the worry he may not get back up.

“Take a seat.”

But he ends up doing so anyway. He doesn’t bother to stretch. It’s not worth it. He’s already in so much pain, and it’ll be worse tomorrow, but he’s too tired. Plus, it would be real great if he could be incapacitated and _not_ have to do this again.

 _“What?”_ Yixing says after a bit of silence. Minseok usually does this when he wants to have a Serious Talk with him, but quite frankly, Yixing doesn’t care to solve their problems like adults anymore. Minseok has made it more than clear where he stands.

“Well, _one,_ don’t use that tone.” Minseok’s eyes flicker up to his in a glare. “And two, I wanted to say that I lied earlier.”

“What?” This _what_ is an off-guard what. Minseok has said a lot of things in the past four hours.

“When I said I accepted your apology. I lied.”

 _I could tell._ “Oh.”

“However,” Minseok gets out of the split and does that one stretch where you put the bottoms of your feet together and push down your folded knees (–thing he can't do). “Now I do accept your apology.”

“What?” This _what_ is a confused what. What exactly had changed between then and now? “Why?”

“Because now I know you’re _really_ sorry.” Minseok smiles saccharinely. “Or, at least, you’re going to be tomorrow when those bruises and muscles settle and then you’re right back to it. We'll continue at the normal schedule."

“Oh…” A breath comes out somewhere between a laugh and a cry. Why is he so cruel?

“So hopefully you’ve learned your lesson.” Minseok’s voice is doted with patronization and Yixing was right the whole time. This insecure asshole really _is_ on a fucking power trip. He looks so satisfied now, a soft smile on his lips and a playful glint to his wide awake eyes. “That you’re not to shit talk me _or_ use my mental disorders against me. And hopefully you apply this to everybody else. You know, basic human decency. I know you can do it. _Understand?”_

It probably makes him feel better that Yixing doesn’t snap at him, that he won’t, he’s too tired to argue.

“Understood…”

Minseok beams as he stands up, going somewhere Yixing doesn’t know because he instead sinks down to a lay, wrapping his arms around his knees tight to his chest. He tries to tuck his head in as much as possible, to get as much darkness as possible, to get as far away as possible.

“You’re staying here?” The sound of light footsteps stagnates. Yixing doesn’t reply.

 _“Yixing,_ I asked you a question. _Are_ you staying–“

 _“Yes.”_ The sound comes out as weak and he feels and tears rush to his eyes. He tries to become smaller.

“Mm… that would have sufficed.” A couple footsteps closer, probably to take a look at him, Yixing stops breathing because he knows when he does it’ll tremble, and Minseok turns the lights off on the way out.

Yixing cries himself to sleep. He’s so powerless and maybe he just won’t wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> god damn that was depressing LOL
> 
> ok if ur reading this right after finishing which I don't see y u wouldn't be that probably just broke the mood but man I shouldda just called this everybody but zhang yixing doesnt suffer for 69 chapters
> 
> I'll also ask the same question I had earlier: who's in the wrong? Had yixing merely gotten what he merited or did minseok go too far?
> 
> also I wonder if yixing's thoughts in the beginning of the chapter will have anything to do with the future of the plot...  
> well I dont wonder I know but that was for u ok bye have a nice week <3


	39. Practicality Purposes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kyungsoo shares more discoveries with Yixing in another clandestine meet.

_“Hello. My name is RF_05. Prototype. Version. How may I help you?”_

_A mechanical arm protrudes from the center of the ten foot tall robot. It’s taken and they shake hands. It’s polite to shake someone’s hand when you first meet them. Even if he can’t move that much. Everything is constricted even if the room is large._

_“Who is Kyungsoo?” The vision of a stern-faced boy appears. He knows he needs to find out about him, who he really is and what he’s really doing, though he’s not so sure why. Not so sure he wants to. He squints because it’s so hard to see here, the lights are so bright. Yifan and Luhan and Zitao in the corner don’t seem to be having trouble seeing, but they’ve been there a while, they must be used to it._

_"Who are you?” The robot asks instead. He doesn’t answer._

_“Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here.”_

_“I’m not?” Is asked calmly despite something happening in the background he can’t quite hear. He looks to Yifan and Luhan and Zitao but they’re just talking in words he doesn’t understand. The tightness strengthens. “But I am not Agent Lay.”_

_“Yes you are.”_

_“No, I am Yixing.”_

_“Yixing is not in here.”_

_“Zhang Yixing?”_

_“Zhang Yixing.”_

_“Then where is Zhang Yixing?”_

_“In there.” The mechanical arm comes back out and points to the side. He turns to see the dining room where there are twelve chairs but only nine are occupied. One of the chairs is in a glass box and he tries to go see further but there’s a wall between the two rooms. But he knows he’s where there are different rules, so he goes through it anyway, and approaches the table. Minseok is wearing his headband over his eyes and putting steak in a first aid bag and he asks why._

_“I need to heal them. Jongin killed them all to eat them. He’s so cruel. I can’t stand to look at it. He’s going to get Cat next.”_

_There might be something wrong with that, but he doesn’t focus on it. Instead, he goes to the glass box and tries to see inside because he thinks this is his seat, but he can’t see anything. It’s transparent but it’s completely fogged up. Junmyeon talks to the fogged glass box but he’s frowning so it seems he’s more trying to. Happiness floods him and he tries to talk to Junmyeon because he likes Junmyeon, Junmyeon makes him safe, but then he is back in the room. In front of the robot._

_“Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here.”_

_“I’m Yixing.”_

_“Yixing is not in here.”_

_"Zhang Yixing?”_

_“Zhang Yixing.”_

_“But I_ am _Zhang Yixing.” He takes out a piece of gold from his pocket. “Look.”_

_“Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here.”_

_He goes to reply, but screaming starts. He looks to the corner and Zitao is in hysterics as he grabs onto Yifan’s arms, words slurring with fear. He replays it twice but he can’t tell what he’s saying. All three of them have white handcuffs and they try to get them off. He doesn’t have the handcuffs on so he goes to help._

_“Zitao. Let me get it off.” He says because he knows he’s where there are different rules, so he can just pull it apart. As soon as they realize he’s there, Zitao’s face grows terrified, but Yifan and Luhan remain calm. They all disappear and for a moment his vision goes black._

_When it’s not black anymore he is somewhere different. There is a caged dim yellow light under yellow and black caution-tape like lining. The hallway is rectangular and just wide enough for his legs to be stretched out and long enough for him to not know what’s on either end._

_The former hints of tightness become solid and he no longer breathes._

_Instead, he looks down, and there’s red all around him. His wrist is handcuffed to the wall and utterly mutilated, torn purple veins and green tendons leaking from chunks of velvety meat just barely enveloped by inflamed pale that all surround something black and crisp._

_Panic explodes. This isn’t supposed to happen. It shouldn’t look like this. That’s not right. Although he keeps leaking the adrenaline becomes more and more, his eyes are going to pop out of his skull. He can’t feel it but he feels the rest of his body in the state of electrocution, where everything tenses and burns and even if he’s been through it so much it’s still too much because he’s pathetic like that and he starts to cry. But he doesn’t hear it. The only sound is the white handcuff that keeps flashing red and beeping loudly, and maybe there are little zaps, and why can’t they hear him crying?_

_The door a couple feet away keeps opening and shutting over something, and he screams for help but nothing comes out. Why? Why is that? He was just with so many people? Why can’t they hear? Why can’t they see? He shakes and tries to fight out of the handcuff but the burn gets worse, flame erupts in the blood as if it’s gas and then he’s on fire, though the inferno doesn’t release smoke, it lets out something white, and then everything is completely fogged up though he can see perfectly transparent. Why? Why can’t they hear? Why can’t they see? Don’t they love him? Any of them? Somebody?_

_“Yixing…”_

_He hears and somebody knows its him, somebody knows he needs help._

_“He really looks…”_

_He tries to yell that he’s here and to come get him, please, and although he has been able to do things because he is somewhere different this time he can’t. This time he remains silent in the state of anguish._

_“Get…”_

_“I know…”_

_“I think it’s…”_

_“He was…”_

_“Yixing…_ Yixing.”

 **THE CONSTRICTION** disappears.

Yixing’s eyes open to the blurry red wired ceiling and he takes in air. A couple seconds of relief and it suddenly becomes difficult to breathe again. A face hovers over his but he sits up too fast to register it, looking to his left and right and everything’s blurry because he’s crying. He wipes his eyes and tries to control gasped breaths, slapping away a pair of hands that come at him and trying to regain control because where is he? Who is it? Is he okay?

 _You’re in a dorm…_ Yixing identifies his surroundings. _Junmyeon, Jongin…_ The people. _The bandage is still there…_ The fear.

It was another nightmare. Simply just that. Though, by some manner, he has been brought to the dormitories by either Junmyeon or Jongin. He’s in front of the two on the bed with mussed blankets. His eyes are wet and his hairline is sweaty and there’s ickiness all over. A deep ache seeps from every muscle.

“Yixing, _are you okay?!”_ Junmyeon’s voice is high with worry. The same pair of hands come but this time Yixing accepts them. Junmyeon’s frowning and Yixing recalls the fading dream: Junmyeon was upset because he couldn’t talk to Yixing because despite his glass box there was fog everywhere.

He recalls more and more of the early details: Minseok trying to heal the steak, Yifan and Luhan and Zitao talking in the corner of RF’s room, him meeting RF in RD’s place, trying to find out about Kyungsoo. Quite frankly, it’s the most sense his dreams have ever made. Perhaps because everything here makes quite the big subconscious mark from its incredulous nature and the surrounding of stress. It explains why no matter what happens, he always seems to end up looking from the pool of blood on the floor to his mutilated wrist. That’s something not even unconsciousness forgets.

And because he is stressed, the things linked with stress in his mind have been and will keep showing up in his dreams. That makes sense. Yixing doesn’t care to analyze the what. He doesn’t believe there is any hidden meaning in fragments of memories mashed together– again, it’s material he _already_ knows; there can’t be anything new. He’ll only analyze the why: this happens because everything is terrible right now. But the what isn’t real. Junmyeon and Jongin are here. Yixing’s right wrist is still surrounded by an off-white bandage under a perfectly white wristband. This lets him breathe again.

“Yixing-hyung.” Yixing finally picks his head up; he’s pretty sure they’ve said his name before this. Junmyeon’s eyes are wide with fear, balking at him as if he’s turned into an alien, and Jongin… he’s looking fixatedly at his wrist. Yixing brings it behind his back like he always does when it gets stares, but Jongin’s eyes follow.

“Oh, Yixing…” Jongin mumbles, and after a couple more seconds of staring at it he looks up to him. In contrast to Junmyeon’s countenance, he looks completely composed, almost familiar. While Junmyeon asks him if he’s okay again, Jongin gets up and repositions himself at Yixing’s right side.

“I’m alright.” He says rather quickly, though his answer is still at least thirty seconds late. “Bad dream. Evidently. But I am not dying or anything, I’m here. And okay. And– _what_ are you doing?” Yixing turns when his wrist, his _right_ wrist, is taken with force.

Despite the sudden hostility, Jongin answers with a calm but cryptic, “Don’t worry, Hyung, nothing’s happening.” Though it becomes less cryptic when Jongin’s fingers trace the bandage before taking his hand. As if he’s done it before, he holds his one hand in his two and rubs his thumb in Yixing’s sweaty palm. It brings an overwhelmingly soothing sensation and the last of Yixing’s panic disappears.

“Bad dream?” Junmyeon’s panic, however, seems to have just gotten started. “But– but you’re– we found you in the auxiliary gym, passed out and– and all bruised! Your– your eye. Have you _seen_ your eye? What _happened?”_

“Minseok and Sehun.” Guilt crawls at his throat as Junmyeon’s distress continues. He reaches his left hand up to cup his shoulder. “Just training. They went hard on me. Because of…” Does he _really_ want to make Junmyeon’s worried face even worse? Does he want to exacerbate the situation? Does he want to bring more negativity and complications when Junmyeon has done nothing but love him? “Well, it’s normal. We did a lot of sparring. And I didn’t pass out, I chose to sleep in there. I was too tired to go find you.” He brings the hand up to Junmyeon’s cheek and gives it a pinch and _finally_ he did it! (It’s just as rewarding as he thought. Junmyeon’s cheeks are great. Both kinds.)

“Normal?” Junmyeon repeats dryly, countenance still mortified as if the cheek pinch hadn’t even happened. “That’s… that’s not normal. Or– it shouldn’t be. That’s _not_ okay. Minseok and Sehun, you said?” His voice shifts from fear to fury real quick and he’s then off the bed out of Yixing’s reach. “I’ll be right–“

“No!” Yixing says a little too loudly and he tries not to think about the desperation in his voice. “Please don’t. Please stay here. If you’re going to do anything for me it’s staying here.” He doesn’t want to know what Minseok and Sehun would do after being remonstrated by their leader, his boyfriend. In an ideal world, he would hope for fixed attitudes, but this isn’t an ideal world. They’d simply think he’s even more pathetic and treat him so.

Junmyeon turns back around and Yixing reaches his hand out. “Come back. I will take care of it myself. I’m an adult.” (He hasn’t used that once since sometime last winter when his mom told him to shovel, though it ended in a loss because “If you’re _such an adult_ that you can’t be made to do chores, then you’re _such an adult_ that I can kick you out of my house” (and _man_ how that one aged!)). 

This one, on the other hand, is a win. The struggle in Junmyeon’s head is evident in his face, the slow rise his hand does before finally breaking with an almost inaudible sigh and returning to his spot, though now closer so he can cuddle Yixing from the left. Junmyeon hugs him and Jongin’s wrapped around his arm rubbing his palm and Yixing forgets what the nightmare was even about. He’s not alone so there’s no reason to be scared.

Wait, but that doesn’t make any–

“Yixing,” Junmyeon’s quickly out of the hug and facing him, “are you okay? What else can I do? Do you need to go to the medical unit? Can you walk? Ice pack for the bruises? I– I brought a couple– but I think they’ve melted by now– I’m so sorry– _Water? Something to eat? Snack?”_ He gets so fast that Yixing surrenders comprehension, _“AnythingyouneedpleasetellmeI’m–“_

“I’m alright.” Yixing can’t help but smile at Junmyeon’s mortified expression: on one hand, it’s kind of funny, and on the other, he cares so much… “I don’t need anything. All I want is for you to stay here.” Though in reality, he _could_ use an ice pack and water and a couple dozen hours of sleep and, as he has quickly realized, a shower. The guilt of his current state and smell almost convinces him to go right now. Almost. For some reason, though, neither Junmyeon or Jongin seem to mind, or at least do not mind enough to voice it out loud. Or they’re just really good actors.

Some more seconds of internal struggle (Yixing imagines something like: _OH MY GOD I CAN’T DO ANYTHING TO HELP SYSTEM MANFULCTION)_ and Junmyeon lets out a tiny, _“Okay…”,_ and sinks back down into the wall beside him. “Well… are you sure you’re at least–“

 _“Yes,_ I am okay.” Yixing interrupts. “I am good. I am fine. I am alright. If anything, I am just tired.”

“You… you’ve said that a lot recently.”

 _“So has Kyung.”_ Comes a sudden mumble into his shoulder. Fear spikes through Yixing, but then he questions if Jongin had really said it because Junmyeon says nothing and Jongin yawns and readjusts at his side.

“Well– the same thing.” Yixing says what he has said the last times he has been questioned, “I have my job and RF continues to overestimate me. I’m being severely overworked. So I am still tired all the time nowadays. But I’m okay, so don’t worry. Please don’t worry.”

“Oh… right, right.” Junmyeon makes a series of tiny nods. “But– but you haven’t had nightmares before…? Are you sure you’re alright? There’s nothing going on? Maybe something you don’t even notice?”

“Everybody gets nightmares. Even me.” Yixing replies, “And as I have been brought to space to save the universe, I have had more material to get nightmares with.” This prompts a chuckle though he’s not joking one bit. “So not to burst your bubble, Junmyeonnie, but you are over-analyzing and I am simply just exhausted. Stop worrying. It's not good for you.” 

“...Agh, I _know.”_ Junmyeon sighs, sinking deeper into the wall. “Everyone tells me that. I worry way too much.”

 _“Most of the time.”_ Jongin hums and that similar scare comes back, but it’s quickly stifled by the sensation the massage brings.

“You just looked…” Junmyeon continues, gaze returning to something worried as they make eye contact. “I don’t know. You scared me. Curled up on the floor and full of bruises.”

“I’m sorry.” Yixing says and he really is. “In my defense, it was more convenient to sleep there. Because it was close because I was already there. But if it will even things out you are free to jump out at me from behind a corner or whatever. Or get my mom here, if you’re that cruel.”

Junmyeon and Jongin both laugh and Yixing melts in the comfort of the setting. He knows this won’t last forever, despite passing out all beaten up, there’s clearly no point of mercy, he’s going to have to go back to Minseok’s horrible attitude and the piles of work he has. But he knows he can at least get one thing from this.

“I’m going to go back to sleep...” Yixing says before leaning so far into Junmyeon he’s lying down. “Feel free to stay here.”

_Please don’t go._

Though Yixing’s pretty sure they get the message anyway because he makes sure to strategically have at least one body part of each. He curls up in a much better place than last time, Junmyeon’s lap, facing him so he can smell him and grab his shirt. Jongin lies down at his other side, practically halfway off the bed but still massaging his hand. Yixing shuts his eyes and, to not go somewhere bad, latches onto what’s now: Jongin’s hand rub, Junmyeon’s thighs, the warmth everywhere, the conversation.

“Hyung…” Yixing can feel Jongin’s voice on the back of his neck. “Baekhyun told me you’re actually bald. Cause you’re so stressed. Are you gonna tell Yixing?”

“What– well– _firstly,_ I am almost sure he’s still awake.” A ruffle to his hair elicits a smile. “And two, no, I am not bald. Don’t believe everything Baekhyun tells you.” Like _come on, let it out,_ _I won't tell._

“But he showed me! We snuck into the bathroom when you weren’t looking and you were bald!”

“Jonginnie, you know he can make you see things that aren’t real.”

“Then prove it.”

“Prove what?”

“That you’re not bald. Try and take off your wig.”

“I– fine… see? It’s not a wig.”

“Let me try.”

“Alright, just don’t pull too– _agh,_ Jongin! Don’t pull so hard!”

“I needed the truth.”

“Well– are you happy now, at least?”

“No… Baekhyun lied to me…”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“No, it’s okay. I was gonna be sadder if you were actually bald… but he still lied to me. I should shave his head.”

“Jongin _no–”_

“Xingie looks asleep. So let’s go shave his head and then come back.”

 _“No._ We’re _not_ shaving anyone’s head.”

“What if we shaved Yixing’s head?”

_“No!”_

“Shh! You’re gonna wake him. And we can’t shave his head if he’s awake.”

“Jongin. We. Are. Not. Shaving. _Anyone’s._ Head.” 

“We shaved Sehun’s head.”

“And that hurt him _so_ _much_.”

“He deserved it… but Yixing-hyung doesn’t. So… change my mind… hide and seek?...”

“Well… anyone’s… mean…”

_“…Hyung…”_

Yixing wakes up in his own bed twelve hours later nightmare free and well-rested. Because he knows it won’t last long, he skips a shower despite being coated in dry sweat and odor and fixes the document about government because he doesn’t want Chanyeol to have that expression on his face or that guilt-ridden hesitance in his voice again. Junmyeon at one point comes in with about five gallons of water and ten ice packs as if preparing for an apocalypse, and Yixing, after making fun of him for being so caring though it really makes his heart melt, thanks him and they part. The same day Jongin also comes in to check on him. This opportunity Yixing takes to apologize to him about the pushing-into-the-bookshelf-though-it’s-really-Baekhyun’s-fault thing and explain that he isn’t a violent person (“Wait– but what about a bit ago when Baekhyun fractured his nose and couldn’t walk for a day and kept crying about his private parts and saying you attacked him?” “Did you listen to Junmyeon? Don’t believe everything Baekhyun tells you.”), but regardless it goes by smoothly and ends in a hug.

The tranquil state he wakes up in slowly fades as hours go by, reality fully setting back in by the time he’s reading about Exoplanet’s walls being completely electronic (through the eye that’s not bruised). Staying up all night isn’t so exhausting the first time, he is still able to produce adequate work and read with coherence, but as the hours stack up to days Yixing reverts to his former state. Minseok keeps his promise and a day later he is back at it, wondering why pain tolerance cannot be built like muscle can. He isn’t as terrible as he was with Sehun, just running him through a simple workout and then working on shooting accuracy with the planned five hundred repetitions a day, but Yixing still hates him, the Big H, above any extent he had hated Baekhyun at. Yixing was wrong, _like_ isn’t very simple, and his relationships here aren’t going to be linear with the exceptions of Junmyeon and Kyungsoo and probably Chanyeol and Jongin. Yixing discovers it is so much easier to simply stay silent. He no longer whines or complains or throws petty insults that had sometimes made the both of them laugh. They don’t do anything except entertain Minseok, and if Yixing is suffering he should at least make the experience as monotonous as possible for him.

Everything is blurred with fatigue, fear, and overthinking to the point that it’s numb, so Yixing doesn’t even realize how long it’s been since he has talked to Kyungsoo until he’s kicked in the side.

 _“No…”_ Yixing mutters, sleep, precious sleep, luring him back. He curls up tighter to block the light.

When the kick repeats, however, Yixing rouses to a state of semi-consciousness so he can process _that is probably Minseok though he said we were done… of course we’re not done…_ since their fight, Minseok has yet to force Yixing into a spontaneous workout, but Yixing knew it was only a matter of time. He curses himself for deciding to sleep in the gymnasium again (because although what he had told Junmyeon was to make it seem like he hadn’t passed out from exhaustion, he actually made a very good point: why walk all the way back to the dorms for an unsuccessful rest when he could stay here for an unsuccessful rest?).

It’s another kick before Yixing realizes he hasn’t heard any of the following from Minseok: _let’s go_ _,_ _get up,_ or that very pointed _Yixing._ This is unusual on all accounts, so Yixing decides maybe he should open his eyes to see what’s going on and if Minseok has become mute and if so why and can it stay that way.

 _“Hyung, why are you…_ oh, hi Kyungsoo…” Yixing squints as he pushes back crunchy hair from his face. This sleeping in the gymnasium thing isn’t the best hygienically, but for some reason the more tired he becomes the less feeling disgusting bothers him. He didn’t even notice the plethora of fresh acne dotting his cheeks until yesterday.

“Hi.” Greets black-clad Kyungsoo standing above him. The last time Yixing saw him was yesterday in the bathroom, but the last time he talked to him was about two weeks ago when Yixing told of his meeting with Baekhyun and they tried to look for CF and ended the night in a frustrated parting. “Why are you on the floor? In the gym. Sleeping. You look like death. All offense meant.”

“Convenience.” Yixing replies. Did Kyungsoo come to say hi or something else? Lately they talk as investigators and not friends. Are they going to continue with his power after a hiatus? That’d be fun, actually. He’ll get to talk to him as friends.

“Isn’t it uncomfortable?” Kyungsoo prompts further conversation but he remains standing which are two mixed signals.

“Yes but I have been too tired to care.” This Yixing says as he rolls his shoulder and winces at the soreness– he slept the wrong way. “I haven’t been sleeping.”

“Me neither.” At this, Yixing looks up. If Kyungsoo has been suffering as much as he has, he certainly doesn’t show it. He has the same dark circles and unenthusiastic tone as per usual.

“And RF has been giving me _so_ much work.” Yixing decides to say after Kyungsoo offers a hand to help him up. “I don’t know if it’s normal or not, but it’s enough to take up literally all day. Well, all day besides when I’m with Minseok…”

“I’m pretty sure he hates you.” Kyungsoo responds. “I watched your guys’ fight a couple weeks ago. And then what happened with Minseok after. He panicked and then went to Jongdae. But he hasn’t freaked out like that since he actually vomited. The one we watched. And he fainted later after that one.” 

“I _know_ he hates me.” Yixing points to his purple eye. “I have been suffering the consequences. And the only thing I can use against him just makes it worse. I wish I had your power. I could punch him to another planet. Or just any other power, to be honest. Something _useful.”_

“I don’t know about you, but I think being able to make fruit juice without actually touching the fruit is pretty dope.” Kyungsoo smirks and Yixing glares, which turns into a kick at the ankles after Kyungsoo muses, “Well, actually, I think I can do that too. Though it’d be a little messy.”

“I literally cannot have anything to myself.” Yixing grumbles. “Unless you’re lying to make me sad. Kyungsoo, why are you lying to make me sad?”

“No, I’m actually not,” Kyungsoo says with a smile Yixing isn’t sure he wants to trust. “Seriously. I’m able to do a little bit of non-contact usage for my power. So I could explode the fruit– yah, keep kicking me and I’ll explode your foot.”

Yixing retracts his foot, reverting to a sit and then a lay. “Please explode the rest of me as well.”

“That sounds like a cry for help.”

Yixing picks his head up to gauge Kyungsoo’s expression, it’s something mirthful, and then goes back down. “It is. Please help me explode myself.”

“Mmm…” Kyungsoo feigns contemplation. “How about I help you back up instead?”

“You’re a horrible friend.” Yixing says as he takes his hand again. Usually, these things call for dual effort, but Kyungsoo must use his powers because all Yixing has to do is lift a hand and then he’s almost flying into Kyungsoo.

“I know. But anyway, in all seriousness,” The spark of humor in Kyungsoo’s tone disappears as he looks up at Yixing’s black eye. “That’s why I stay away from Minseok. Conflict with him always ends up in some kind of violence. And consequent conflict with Jongdae.”

“Oh, yeah, him too…” The more than loathsome glares he has received throughout the last couple weeks relay in his mind. “He hates me too… and also Baekhyun– he doesn’t hate me, but I’m not so sure I like him anymore. I had vented my frustration about Minseok in confidence and then he told everything I said to Minseok. And it wasn’t very nice. So Minseok beat me up under the pretext of training. With Sehun. Sehun seems to hate me as well. Because I am with Junmyeon…” Yixing looks up from where his gaze had fallen to the floor, “Kyungsoo, I really don’t get it… well– I do, I messed with and trusted the wrong people, but I just don’t like it… I have so much conflict… maybe I won’t need your help to explode…”

“I would say it’s actually pretty normal.” Kyungsoo responds nonchalantly. “I mean, it’s hard to enter such an intimate circle of friends… well, cohabitants. I didn’t talk to anyone for a month when I got here, so you’re already ahead of me. Usually it goes like this: you come, everyone gets their first impression and judges you off that, usually because you’re going insane or becoming depressed as fuck from the you’re here to save the universe thing you get into drama with people, and in your and Jongdae’s case get a boyfriend, and then it dies down and you just assimilate. And don’t explode.”

“It dies down… yeah…” Yixing repeats so he’s more likely to remember it. Though, Kyungsoo also said something else that repeats: _usually._ For somebody who comes here the _usual_ sixteen or seventeen year old Korean, somebody who is treated normally by RF and somebody who sees nothing wrong with her, somebody who isn’t given a third degree burn they get nightmares about. Of course, everybody here struggles with things, but Yixing has a feeling they aren’t things like this.

“Except for Baekhyun and Jongdae, as you’ve probably noticed.” Kyungsoo adds. “I don’t know how, but they find ways to _always_ have some kind of drama going on. And then pick and choose who to involve until there’s a physical fight or Junmyeon or RF stops it.” He shakes his head, “But anyway, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Yixing stares blankly at him and there’s a couple of seconds before Kyungsoo gets what he just said, ‘there’s nothing to worry about’ and smiles.

“I mean, nothing that’s not RF killing three of us to not worry about.”

The blank stare turns into an aghast stare before Kyungsoo – after a definitely deliberate to build up anticipation pause – continues, “Yixing, I like your company and all, but I came to find you for a reason.”

“Oh… Okay.” On one wrist the time displays three in the morning (and wait, he thought he had _come to train_ at three in the morning? What?). On one hand there’s a bit of anticipation to find more out, but on the other hand there’s the possibility of ‘more’ being bad and Yixing’s mental state declining further.

“So you’re not going to at least help me explode?”

“Nope.”

However, this choice has already been made.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

A sense of familiar unrest greets Yixing as he seats himself in the metal foldup chair next to Kyungsoo at the table with the large block computer. The lighting is arbitrary with many of the cameras blacked-out, the ones remaining alight just barely making legible the several books and excerpts of things they’ve found. Contrary to the last time Yixing was here, Kyungsoo has neatened everything out, stacking articles and books and manuals each in a specific pile. On the top is a torn scrap of newspaper titled _CIENTISTA NÃO ORTODOXO DISCUTE PORQUE A HUMANIDADE É UMA “IMPOSIÇÃO”_.

“We have about an hour.” Kyungsoo says, then sliding that same newspaper in front of Yixing. Is it English? It’s in English letters. He doesn’t remember much English… “So let’s not waste time. I don’t know about you, I’ve found a _lot_ since we last talked _._ So you’re familiar with Eugênio Vermillion, right?”

“The person who created EXO and RF and everything.” Yixing remembers from RD_06: _Vermillion designed us to carry on his legacy._ He also wrote several of the books he hasn’t read, both investigative and assigned. And Kyungsoo’s talking about him?

“Yes. So, after we couldn’t find anything on CF, I decided to go a different route, since you were looking into RF, and look into who created her, because it’s only logical she’d be created for a reason, so I–“

“She is.” Yixing interrupts. “When I met RD_06, it said that it and RF and CF were made to carry on that Vermillion person’s quote unquote ‘legacy’.”

“Oh, that confirms it, then.” Kyungsoo looks down in thought for a couple moments. “By the way,” He says when his head springs back up, “did you ever go to any more meetings with Baekhyun and RF? I checked the cameras of the rooms where I suspected she would hold them and I didn’t find anything.”

“No. Been busy.” And terrified. Yixing already gets nervous seeing the robot every morning. Nor has Baekhyun mentioned it ever since. Perhaps RF had disliked his distracting company and told Baekhyun to never talk about it so Yixing would inevitably forget. Awe, she knows him so well. 

“Alright… well, anyway, so I looked into him. He’s a real person from Earth, actually. And pretty modern, too. He was a scientist and engineer from… ah, I forget the name, somewhere in South America, but he had some popularity within his area in the early two-thousands. But his country was small and he never became super famous or anything, strange considering what he has made, and that’s because this is all clandestine. Has always meant to be. Why we only go to Earth to get other people.”

“And why we’re friendly with all places _but_ Earth?” Yixing pulls directly from his first AC meet. It’s almost scary how easily his mind delves right into the topic, as if the large block of mental fatigue was never even there. This is the darkest room he has been in today but he’s wide awake. “I don’t know if this is general knowledge, but I found out at the first meeting for my job, Alien Communications, that EXO is a widespread thing among aliens. In terms of interconnectivity, Earth’s an excluded outlier to the universe.”

“It’s not really.” Kyungsoo responds which doesn’t exactly tell Yixing whether that was useful information or not. Or was he refuting what he said? “And yeah, the part about Earth not being acquainted with aliens,” So it _was_ useful, “it’s especially strange because the only part that _is_ acquainted _,_ Vermillion, wasn’t very well-known. I only found a couple documents– articles, in his name…” Kyungsoo separates the pile of what Yixing thought was all newspaper articles in half. “And then a bunch of criminal records.”

Oh. Oh dear.

“Where?” Yixing knows Kyungsoo said not to waste time but if there’s somewhere he can find _criminal records,_ he’s almost _positive_ his mother has done something illegal (besides child abuse– there’s _got_ to be a limit for how many times you’re allowed to yank your kid’s ear). And also general curiosity.

“Here.” Kyungsoo answers like it’s obvious. When Yixing’s eyes narrow like it’s not obvious, Kyungsoo goes on, “I mean– it’s a button you’ve got to push, but over there,” Kyungsoo points to the wall adjacent to the door, “it opens up to another section like this just full of cabinets and files and files. All the files that have ever been processed by a computer on Earth. Which is every file. Took me longer to _find_ this stuff than to actually go through it.”

“Okay.” Thoughts of what he can do with this information come in, but he quickly brushes it off. “Anyways, you were saying?”

Kyungsoo gets right back to it. “So this dude was pretty much a mad scientist. Or, a mad astronomer. Mad engineer. Whatever. He was really smart but had terrible ideas… Yixing-hyung,” Yixing looks up from the records and Kyungsoo’s big eyes meet his, “I’ll just lay it on you: I’m pretty sure his intent was to end humanity.”

Say _what_ now?

Yixing blinks dumbly, dialogue not processing. Never mind, his brain isn’t wide awake. “Could you, um, repeat that?”

“I’m pretty sure his intent was to end humanity.” 

“…Again?”

“I’m pretty sure his intent was to end humanity.” 

“Rephrase?”

“I, Do Kyungsoo, have a strong suspicion that Eugenio Vermillion, the person who created EXO, possessed a desire to destroy the human race.”

“Oh.” He nods, first slow and then speeding up. “That’s… not nice. That’s… _what?_ Why? _How?_ Are you joking? Kyungsoo, don’t joke with me about these things. I’ll hit you.”

“No, you dimwit.” Instead it’s Kyungsoo who hits Yixing upside the head. “I’m not kidding. In the articles he was always referred to as an extremist. I was reading a dialogue on a radio show where he and someone else were discussing social sciences. His ideas were really… out of this worl– out of Earth. It seems he believed the human race is going to cause discord among everything else in the universe for some reason and they should just be exterminated. ‘Practicality purposes’ he said. It was really… cryptic.”

An _imposition._ _Humanity._ An _imposition._ That article title he had seen two meetings ago. So that’s what it meant.

It’s a lot to take in and Yixing physically feels it. His chest tightens at the idea that RF is using them to basically kill themselves; he needs to find some hint that it isn’t true. What other reason would Earth and the aliens need to be separated for? Why would they _all_ deliberately avoid a civilization just as intelligent, if not more, as they are if it weren’t for a purpose they didn’t want Earth to know? And Vermillion, _extremist…_ perhaps Kyungsoo read a bit too in between the lines?

Kyungsoo’s finger taps twice on the article: **CIENTISTA NÃO ORTODOXO DISCUTE PORQUE A HUMANIDADE É UMA “IMPOSIÇÃO”** ****

“It’s in Portuguese, obviously,” Oh, right, languages other than English have English letters. Kyungsoo then slides another piece of paper on top of it. The pristine white contrasts with the aged yellow. Now _this_ is the exact paper he remembers from weeks ago. “So I translated in a way that wouldn’t track it. Just read it.”

Yixing’s not so sure he wants to.

**_UNORTHODOX SCIENTIST DISCUSSES WHY HUMANITY IS AN IMPOSITION_ **

_3 December 2002 – Calisto Fátima – Os Não-ortodoxos_

_“Pragmatic will transcend all.”_

_Eugênio Vermillion, self-acclaimed ‘astronomer’ despite not as much as a high school degree (and, as the man’s attire suggests, a place to live), has gained public recognition in his area, Soriano, Uruguay, for his extreme ideas of Earth and Space. Vermillion claims humanity causes problems within the universe and will be the destruction of the everything we have ever known and, even more unbelievably, do not yet know. He has agreed to a brief interview:_

The page cuts off on a bolded name starting with a ‘V’, the tops of capital letters visible but not enough to make anything from context. But Yixing doesn’t need any more context than this.

“Why?” He asks, then realizing he should be more specific. “Why did– does he believe that we would cause problems for everything else in space. _How_ does he know that? And what makes you think he intended to _destroy_ it?”

“Well…” Is this uncertainty? That means Kyungsoo actually has no ground on why Vermillion would want to destroy humanity AKA Vermillion wasn’t actually going to and Kyungsoo's just unnecessarily scaring the shit out of him? “Firstly, I couldn’t find where his beliefs came from. And secondly, no, he never specifically says he had a plan to destroy it anywhere,” Yixing begins to speak but Kyungsoo overrides him, “But– _yah,_ but _Yixing,_ he was still a nutjob. He was arrested on charges of illegal possession of firearms and given death penalty for murder. I had just used a dictionary to translate, but the paper’s still right–“

 _“Murder?!”_ Yixing’s eyes bulge.

Kyungsoo reflects the look. His hands stop whatever they were trying to find. “Yes! That’s what I found! He murdered his spouse. I don’t know why. It just said he killed her from strange technology, which I’m guessing he had made. Which was also the ‘firearms’ part. The weirdest part is that later it’s reported that his creations were found and destroyed, but here we are...

“That’s all the important stuff I could find. There were no specific records of ‘RF’ or ‘CF’ on Earth anywhere, so they must’ve been secret. I couldn’t access RF’s console or her personal database. I couldn’t understand anything else of the three because I can’t understand Mandarin, but I highly doubt they knew as much as we do considering what I’ve went through to discover it. And all archive trashes were empty.”

Yixing takes a minute to give up on denial and process all of this, vision defocusing into a blur.

So Vermillion is a psychopath, and he’s _also_ the person who created EXO, the greatest technology ever seen, and _also_ hated humanity and speculatively wanted to end it; which is totally within his reach considering what he has built. It’s not certain why he hated humanity except for something along the lines of them being an imposition to whatever goes on in space. (Though Yixing has yet to note any aliens or emails Chanyeol gets suggesting anything of the sort.) RF and CF in specific Vermillion never mentioned in the little information found about him, meaning RF and CF were a secret– meaning most, if not all, of EXO was a secret to Earth. It was something alien collaborating with Vermillion. Who started it, then? Was Vermillion a victim of foreign manipulation, an alien agenda they don’t know about, or a mastermind of the universe?

God, this just got _way_ bigger than he wanted it to.

Kyungsoo continues, “And it connects to what RF was asking Baekhyun about, how you said he told you she asks about the _relationships_ between _technology_ and _people_ and _influence_ and _power roles,_ because it reveals a little bit of the actual _plan._ What she’s actually doing. Yixing-hyung, I don’t think we’re trying to save the universe here.”

“Clearly.” It’s funny, because this all would be so much easier had Yixing just kept his doubt from the start. Of course they’re not _saving the universe._ Though _we’re destroying humanity_ doesn’t ring too feasible either… “So,” Kyungsoo readjusts himself into a criss-cross position, leaning forward over the table to make hand gestures simultaneous to his speaking. His eyes are filled with an investigative passion. “I really think I have an idea of how this all connects, now. Baekhyun said influence and the relationship between technology and people. You witnessed talking about power, more specifically the _roles_ and what happens when the _roles change._ I think RF’s asking this because she wants to do something with _RD_06_ and Earth– or, the humans on Earth. Vermillion’s goal–“

“Wait.” Yixing interrupts. “But we don’t know if RF was asking that with intent…” He realizes how stupid that sounds. “With intent in mind…”

Kyungsoo stares at him like such. “RF’s a robot. Robots always have reasons to do things.” Yixing nods as his face reddens. “Anyway, as I was saying, Vermillion’s goal is to eliminate our species and there’s no other reason RD would be being _mass produced_ in _secret_ if it weren’t to help that goal. I know RF said it’s to carry out smaller functions, but she already has things for that. And RF’s clearly a liar.”

Yixing watches his fingers do senseless things over the papers. It probably has some sort of structure in Kyungsoo’s head. Before he speaks he picks his head up because they’re distracting. “So… they’re built to carry on his ‘legacy’ in that they’ll destroy humanity… which, in Vermillion’s eyes, is good for space. Because we’re an imposition to _something._ And, actually, what if it’s Vermillion’s definition of _saving the universe?”_

Kyungsoo’s eyes widen, “Could be.”

“It’d be consistent, at least.” Yixing shrugs. He feels like a conspiracy theorist. “But anyways, if it’s being done by something mass produced, like RD, I would say blunt force tactic. But if we put ‘influence’ and all of RF’s questions about power dynamics into the equation, it changes everything…”

Yixing mind races about something he doesn't even want to believe. “Assuming the conclusion that we’re out here to end the world, I’d say there are two possibilities. One is an infiltration process, because why would RF want to learn so much about humanity at an intimate level, to the point of hosting humans here, if she were to just destroy it by blunt force… but then there’s the possibility that it’s simply to gather information about and from us before it’s all destroyed by blunt force. We’re of above average intelligence in terms of all of the life in the universe, I believe. I remember Chanyeol saying the aliens revere us. But this second possibility doesn’t exactly relate to ‘influence’. But also, Kyung, Kyungsoo, I would say a goal of control is possible as well. Rather than destruction. This would explain the questions about power dynamics and tyranny given that they were asked for this purpose.”

Kyungsoo drums his fingers on the table. “Yeah… and you read Yifan’s journal, right?” A nod. “So you know the Tree of Life’s just a giant battery. Considering all we’re doing and have done to fill it up, it’s quite possible whatever it’s reaching is the power to do it. Power up all the RDs or just blow up planet Earth or something.”

“Hm. Seems I won’t need your help to explode, then.”

The atmosphere is pulled taught as Kyungsoo’s gaze snaps to him, face completely blank. Quite honestly, Yixing’s not quite sure where it came from, but it’s not funny, because this is serious and the very thing that has brought him all this suffering, so it’s not funny, and it’s not fucking funny Yixing don’t you _dare_ –

 _“Fuck you.”_ Kyungsoo snorts as they both burst out into laughter, hushed as if they’re schoolboys trying to keep quiet in a strict classroom. Yixing’s snickers soon involve a bit of pain because Kyungsoo hits him repeatedly and scolds, “This is literally _not a joke!”_

“Yah, Do Kyungsoo, I can’t believe you _still_ think I’m joking.” Yixing catches the next hand swung, “You’re not only treating this investigation but also my _mental health_ like a joke?” Kyungsoo’s still pressing arm stills as he breaks into more giggles and Yixing scoffs, pushing his arm away. “You’re a horrible person.”

 _“Me?!”_ Large eyes widen. “Horrible?! _You_ just made a fucking _joke_ when we’re talking about the possibility that RF wants to kill everyone we have ever known!” This Kyungsoo says while still laughing at said joke.

“I am past the fact that I am a horrible person. You should be too.”

“Fuck you.”

Kyungsoo takes quite a while to compose himself, and with that Yixing takes notice of something. It’s just a small detail, how something innocent peeks out in Kyungsoo’s giggle. And how long has his dongsaeng had to act like an adult for? Has he always been stoic or was he forced into this persona when kidnapped at sixteen, fifteen? What was Kyungsoo like before his best friends died and he kept his suspicions stifled for a year? Is there missed youth deeper that fights to come out, which makes times of success such as this noticeable when it’s at least a full minute of Kyungsoo laughing at a joke that’s a chuckle at best?

“Sorry, sorry,” Kyungsoo shakes his head and lowers it into his hands, “It’s not even funny. This whole situation isn’t funny.”

“Okay.” Yixing says instead of _your laughing says otherwise._ He takes the smile off his face (because maybe it’s kind of endearing to see Kyungsoo in such a rare form) and tracks back to the topic, “Well, in all seriousness, explode Earth or take it over with RD. Makes sense.” It makes absolutely zero fucking sense.

“Yeah…” And that’s where the conversation finds a dead end. Everything now has more than vague connections conceived from the minds of high schoolers, something nebulous but not completely fanciful. Yixing is unsure, because what if they’re _completely_ wrong about everything? But there is too much proof? There is obviously something bad, obviously something wrong with this guy, but what if they are getting the bad wrong? Are they looking at the completely wrong angle? What if–

“You know… you ever think about why it’s us?” 

Yixing looks up. “Me and you?”

“No. Korean and Chinese males living in South Korea aged sixteen to twenty.”

“Oh.” He reddens. “Well, I suppose it’s because RF wanted us to have a familiarity with each other in order to get work done, such as living in the same country and speaking the same language– languages.”

“Yeah, but almost everything here speaks _Portuguese.”_

“True…” Yixing trails off. It’s true that they’re young and healthy specimens of their race, humanity, and are assured no complications and easy coordination with similar cultures and a shared language. However, the practicality, what Vermillion seems to put such emphasis on, ends there. They speak the same language but not the one of the ship. They are maybe at the athletic peak of their lives and that of advantage for their sex, but definitely not the intellectual. They have this except they don’t have that, and why would it be such if practicality is an idealism that demands the best in all categories? 

Suddenly, it clicks.

Vermillion’s practicality is not the best in everything. Vermillion’s practicality is the best in _only_ what he needs.

“People like us were the best pick because we have and lack everything he needed– a perfect combination.” Yixing sits up before elaborating. “As to why _we_ were picked for EXO instead of some group of astronomers. Because if what you’re saying is true, we’re merely being used, then we’re the best at that and not suspecting anything. One, we don’t speak Portuguese, so it limits us to almost none of the technology. Two, we– most of us, are really athletic, so we can pull off missions and stuff to gather the energy for the Tree. And three, we’re not that smart. We’re young and impressionable. I’m literally the only one here who has finished high school. I don’t think we were expected to start suspecting, which is why RF killed them all of the sudden and is telling us to stop in the most persuading way possible, fear, burning. It quite… literally was a panic regimen.”

Kyungsoo nods along to him in full agreement, lips parting a little bit. _“Yeah._ Scaring us into stopping… I think it’s kind of a mistake of RF to go that far, because that’s really the confirmation I had for something’s wrong here.”

“So now,” Kyungsoo gets out of the criss-cross which is a bit awkward and he knees the table and Yixing tries to not laugh. _“Stop laughing.”_ Tries. “Anyway, we have a way better idea of how all these things connect, but still aren’t certain. There’s nothing absolutely concrete. It’s all on our speculation but the evidence we have is too suspicious to be anything good or false. So I think we keep looking to solidify that and figure out how to stop her.”

“Stop her…” This sends a shiver down Yixing’s spine. Maybe it’s not completely unrealistic: Yifan and Luhan and Zitao destroyed CF. However, they destroyed something much simpler and they had much more power. Yixing and Kyungsoo really only have intelligence on their side. Kyungsoo has all the strength in the universe but it’s trapped in a body just barely crossing the threshold of ‘athletic’.

“Or– or something like that, I don’t know…” Kyungsoo’s voice loses confidence. “I mean, what else is there? Do nothing and let whatever she’s doing happen?” Yixing almost finds himself saying yes but refrains when Kyungsoo’s eyes meet his. “I don’t know, I just want to stop living in this constant questioning and fear. And do you ever wonder if anyone else knows things? Suspects things? And they just aren’t saying it?”

“I have.” Immediately a memory comes to Yixing’s mind. “There is this one instance. I had been with Junmyeon _right_ after being burned. So he had seen the blood and everything before it was cleaned up. But when he asked me about it later, the first thing he said was something like ‘how were you injured _under_ your wristband?’, as if he couldn’t imagine it being the wristband itself. And it seems mostly everyone regards RF as family by the way they interact with her. I have only been here a couple months but it doesn’t seem anyone questions this place. Except you.”

“Yeah…” Kyungsoo sighs, as if he had been hoping for a different answer. “I was just asking cause... well, it’s the same in my experience. No one suspects anything. Though now when I think about it, Yifan and Luhan and Zitao, well, at least Zitao, acted a little strange before his death. I noticed. But nobody else did. Not when we all talked about it. The possibility of it not actually being a mission wasn’t even, like, _imagined._ It’s quite jarring. At least for me… it’s always been bit… isolating, to be honest.”

“No it’s not.” Yixing replies. When Kyungsoo looks up in confusion, Yixing brings his hands up to cup his cheeks. “You have me.”

“Isolating except for this one fucking _weirdo._ But I’d call it trapped more than allied.”

“You’re _trapped_ with the person you deliberately chose rather than the other eight?” Yixing’s eyebrows raise. He takes one hand away and leans into the other with his elbow on the table. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, Kyungsoo.”

Kyungsoo’s feigned annoyance dissolves into a chuckle. “I mean, I’ll try it. _Nothing_ has been helping me sleep at night.” 

“Same. Junmyeon helps me. Though not at night. Just whenever I find him.” Yixing smiles at things like yesterday when he peered into the room and Junmyeon already had his arms open and they cuddled and man Junmyeon is amazing. “For some reason it’s easier when I am in someone else’s presence. Someone who I know isn’t going to attempt to murder me.”

“Yeah, I get it, you have a boyfriend.” Kyungsoo rolls his eyes, organizing the papers back in their piles.

Yixing’s eyes narrow, “I said _someone who I know isn’t going to attempt to murder me._ Junmyeon was just an example. I will gladly sleep with you too. Just tell me your schedule and whereabouts and I will show up. Promise.”

“And how do you know I won’t attempt to murder you?” A thick brow quirks.

“I know because–“ At Kyungsoo’s stone-cold expression Yixing’s certainty dwindles. “Well, I would _hope_ that we are good enough friends that you wouldn’t attempt to murder me.”

“I am full of surprises.”

“Like explosions?”

“Like strangling you in your sleep because you’re not fucking funny. God, your boyfriend’s rubbing off on you. I may have to rethink this friendship.”

“Okay– first of all, _again,_ I still don’t know what’s making you think that’s a joke. And second, fine, I won’t sleep with you. And third, _yes,_ I _do_ have a boyfriend and it’s _great_ and I will hold that over your five foot two head along with the fact that I spend a huge chunk of my days alone with _your_ crush.”

He knows he has won when Kyungsoo’s jaw drops in offense. Yixing grins in victory and it’s a couple moments before a mutter of, _“Say that again when I’m strangling you…”_

“You know,” Yixing leans his face down to where Kyungsoo’s looking to the floor in despondence. “It was said in the first place all because you called me a weirdo you were trapped with instead of a, ‘yeah, Yixing, we have each other’.”

“That’s gay.”

“You’re gay.”

“No I’m– I’m– well, _so are you.”_

“And? This isn’t even about sexuality. And ‘that’s gay’ is a rather poor argument. Immature. Something I thought was below intelligent Do Kyungsoo. Do you mean you have trouble expressing positive emotions towards somebody because of the fear it makes you vulnerable? If so, I will do the favor of telling you that I already know you love me. So if you say it the world won’t blow up. Well, maybe it will if that’s what RF’s doing, but it won’t be the cause.”

This time, he knows he has won when Kyungsoo’s head is on his shoulder. It starts with lips thinning, a large sigh, and then sinking down in his seat and then to the left to Yixing’s shoulder. Yixing smiles with fondness (and resists the overwhelming urge to rub his spiky head because it feels cool but the last time he tried he was injured).

He takes the alternative of wrapping his arm around his shoulders to give a couple arm pats. Yixing knows how desperate Kyungsoo is to find this all out: he put himself through so long of staying silent until he was sure he could tell the right person his suspicions, hours of footage of his dead friends and continued despite tears, and, if Yixing’s being honest, he’s the one pushing on with the investigation. Yixing has been questioning everything but Kyungsoo shows none of that even if he says he’s terrified too.

Is the question _how_ or _why_ does he do that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> damn ok I just dropped the ball
> 
> okay! so firstly, the text had said the dream has no significance, but we know by now the text is from an unreliable narrator. the dream includes both total bullshit and foreshadowing. u just do not know what is what. 
> 
> and Kyungsoo and yixing had concluded a LOT. do you think it's accurate? if so, why would humanity be deserving of destruction? if not, what truth could this red herring be leading away from?
> 
> additionally if you happen to speak portuguese and see an error in the sentence I had google translated pls correct juseyo 
> 
> thank you for reading! I'm getting rly nervous with these chapters lately bc like stuff is actually happening😅 I question like the structure and whether I am revealing too much at once or too little,,, I'll definitely be asking this at the end of the story lol


	40. Let's Talk About Lying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing attends another conversation with Baekhyun and RF.

**"OKAY, GUYS,** so the other day I was thinking, and I had this thought… do you _really_ think Greece is real?”

_“Jesus fucking–“_

“Of course it’s real.” Chanyeol sits up, pushing away Jongin’s hand that comes to pull him back down. “It’s literally on the map.”

“Yeah, sure it is,” Jongdae continues as if he had expected this argument. He looks down at Chanyeol from the stack of mats which consequently means Minseok who’s lying directly on top of him also looks down at Chanyeol from the stack of mats. “But, Channie, don’t be so naive. How can you know the maps are telling the truth?”

“Well, er… _so_ many people have made maps. And it would be really hard for all of these people to keep that kind of secret, let alone know it’s a secret, nor is it very unlikely that they all made that same mistake of adding Greece.”

“That’s _exactly_ what they’d want you to think.”

“Jongdae-hyung,” Kyungsoo comes in from under Jongin who was formerly under Chanyeol, “I think it’s just logic.” Getting a tiny ‘yeah’ and smile from Chanyeol.

_“Logic?_ The government really _has_ brainwashed you!” Jongdae points a finger so emphatically the pair almost fall off of the mats.

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up…” Baekhyun has been staring at the floor ever since the conversation started, but now he picks his sweaty face up to speak. “Dae’s right guys. Like, have you ever _seen_ a Greek person? A real life Greek person?”

The congested area erupts in groans and annoyed responses, but the noise is nothing to the smell. Yixing isn’t so sure how it happened, but this afternoon there was a group training which ended in Kyungsoo finding himself a corner to tend to his wounds in. This Jongin joined (“Hey Kyu–“ “I’m _trying_ to do something here, get your sweaty ass off!”) and Sehun chased (“One more round Jongin. _One more round._ You’re too scared. I know it.”) and Junmyeon inevitably followed to diffuse conflict (“Sehun, please let go of Jonginnie’s hair.”) and Yixing defaulted to Junmyeon (“Hi.”) and Chanyeol came to inquire (“Jongin, how did you do that thing with the dumbbell?”) and Baekhyun saw all of the commotion and joined (“Sup partay people!”) and Jongdae assumed they were there for a reason (“What’s this all about?”) and Minseok was dragged over by Jongdae (“Yah, babe, I’m going to go take a show– oh, okay, I guess I’ll stay… for a little…”).

Like every single other training Yixing has had, this one sucked. But it’s even worse, because with so many hours and days and weeks of training just with Minseok, Yixing was kind of excited to show off his improvement; to show them all he’s not the same boy who had to be forced into the gymnasium in his pajamas. Unfortunately, he had forgotten the fact that he hasn’t slept in a good three weeks and RF might just be trying to destroy humanity. The excitement at the start of training quickly disappears and his distraction is at its high.

At first, he had been too bold and asked Jongin to spar, which ended up in Jongin beating him several times. Fatigue accumulated and accumulated on Yixing’s every movement. This combined with the trying to think about everything he had learned the night previous resulted in something even more distracted than Yixing’s Worst Focus. He soon left the situation as Sehun came over and he didn’t want to deal with Sehun (though Jongin did, and they went at it for the rest of the time). Yixing told himself to not feel too pathetic about it, it’s _Jongin,_ after all, and then went to see what Kyungsoo was doing because they are required to have a relatively high heart rate for these couple hours AKA Yixing couldn't do nothing. He joined a rather quiet Kyungsoo in a simple abdomen routine (WKA_#1). It’s something he’s done hundreds of times with Minseok, but he ended up dropping out of his plank halfway because he was on the verge of unconsciousness. This was even more embarrassing because perhaps Yixing had went there because he knows Kyungsoo is the least athletic here, but now it was Kyungsoo teasing him until Yixing decided to go find what someone _else_ was doing. From there, he was accosted by Baekhyun, who challenged him to a race around Exoplanet. Of course, Yixing declined, but then he was called a pussy and made fun of and you know what? Baekhyun needed to be put in his place. Except this backfired because Baekhyun was not put in _his_ place he was in _first_ place. Yixing is almost certain he would have won had his exhaustion not added another twenty pounds to his body, and, in fact, he _almost_ had, but then Baekhyun decided to start cheating and Yixing endured several shenanigans such as a sudden wall appearing in front of him, a scantily dressed Junmyeon suggestively waving from a slightly open door (which just made him _completely_ stop because… like…), and spots of his vision being black. Upon toiling his aching legs in a slow walk back to the gymnasium, Minseok dragged him to the obstacle course he loves to order him to do at the randomest times during their sessions, and Yixing lost races to all Minseok, Jongdae, and even Chanyeol, whose long limbs don’t do him any help in coordination.

In every situation there’s something that sticks, whether it’s a small, “Hyung, are you… never mind.” (Jongin), or a less small, “Man, I’ve got to lug this _monster_ of a dick around and you _still_ lost to me? (Baekhyun), or a blunt, “It’s as if you literally hadn’t _just_ been doing this all of last week.” (Minseok), Yixing’s mood sinks deeper and deeper in the quicksand of inadequacy. He tries to excuse it with his exhaustion, and it is an excuse, it _is,_ but he’s so tired that the logic doesn’t compute and he just feels sad.

One happy thing _does_ happen though.

As Yixing was sulking in the corner trying for the umpteenth time to reassess everything he and Kyungsoo had gone through the night previous but pretending he wasn’t by lifting dumbbells just heavy enough to keep his heart rate up, he was approached by the one person he has yet to embarrass himself in front of. Junmyeon greeted him with a smile and a, “Hiya Xing!” and Yixing said he looks very sweaty and strongly suggested he takes his shirt off, and Junmyeon laughed (but still didn’t take off his shirt, unfortunately) and the shitty mood alleviated and then Junmyeon invited him to spar. This is what goes well.

Not that Yixing was desperate to prove dominance in some, _any,_ way shape or form, but a type of adrenaline so strong as if he needed to save his own life buzzed through his veins as he and Junmyeon squared up in the ring. Unlike Jongin, it didn’t immediately go away, and Yixing actually found himself _beating_ his boyfriend. Like, winning. Like, not losing. Junmyeon is an adequate athlete and is definitely stronger than Yixing, as shown by the weights he lifts and when he pins Yixing down by the shoulders, but Yixing is by far faster and more agile, as shown by when he slips out from under Junmyeon trying to give him a kiss somewhere on the face after aforementioned pinning him down because he is terrified of that somewhere on the face being his lips and he hasn’t figured out how to do that yet and he is also terrified of one of the guys seeing the whole exchange and then the torment would _never_ end.

They end ten rounds in seven to three Yixing and he bottles all of his happiness inside and tries to let it diffuse into everything else as he goes with Junmyeon to grab water:

“Wow, Yixing, I’m just thinking about you now compared to a couple months ago… I– I mean, not that you were bad– but– I don’t know… you beat me… you’re cool…”

“You wouldn’t think I was cool if you knew just how happy I am from that.”

“No, I still would… then I would just think you’re both cool and adorable.”

“In that case I am very happy.”

“And you’re funny– clever, smart… and handsome… _ahh…_ oh, I think Sehun’s doing something, I’ll– I’ll be right back, yeah…”

Hence continued the sequence of events aforementioned, and now Kyungsoo currently sits against the wall in the corner with Jongin between his legs who formerly had Chanyeol between his legs. A couple feet away is the stack of mats (because the corner Kyungsoo had fixed specifically to barricade himself in) where Jongdae lies on his back and Minseok lies on his stomach directly over Jongdae like the sixty-nine but it’s just six-six or nine-nine and they’re not naked. At the bench adjacent perches Baekhyun in that weird squat he likes to do. Also on the floor is Junmyeon. Yixing had initially taken advantage of the everybody’s-making-contact-so-it-won’t-stick-out to lean into him, but then Sehun came in and pushed him away to just go and occupy the space himself. Junmyeon gave an apologetic expression as if Sehun’s his kid he loves too much to scold for being an absolute fucking degenerate and Yixing now rests his cheek on the bench Baekhyun’s on because it’s nice and cool. They had all remained silent in exhaustion for a couple minutes before Jongdae claimed Greece was not real.

Back to the current discourse:

“Uhm,” Kyungsoo glares daggers at Baekhyun, “literally _all_ those historical figures? Socrates. Aristotle. Plato. Homer. Zeus. Greece is literally one of the pillars of human history.”

But it’s not like Yixing’s paying much attention anyway. He’s been trying to think about the same god damn thing for hours _: RF’s going to_ _destroy the world?_

“And Jesus!”

Now that he’s just sitting, and in somewhat of a better mood, he can think _kind_ of coherently. So he and Kyungsoo had went over the what: RD is being mass produced, the Tree of Life is a giant battery, RF is willing to kill to meet this goal.

“Jesus was Jewish.”

“No, Jesus was fake.”

“Your mom was fake.”

“And your mom’s a lesbian.”

However, they hadn’t gotten too far on the why. Eugenio Vermillion disliked humanity, according to that article and Kyungsoo's word of other findings, but the reasoning makes no sense. He thinks humans _are bad for the universe_ and _will cause destruction to everything._ Why?

“You’re a lesbian… You too Minseok-hyung. Both of you are lesbians.”

The claim itself is even a bit contradictory, considering that Earth does not even have _contact_ with outside nations while in these parts of space they are so intertwined as if they’re just different cities.

“Isn’t the Lesbos Island _in_ Greece?”

_“Exactly!_ You can’t tell me somebody came up with Greece and everything inside it and all of these people just for it to be a lie.”

Earth doesn’t even know them, but this _doesn’t_ go the other way around. Chanyeol observes Earth is revered for their advances, not hated or feared. But perhaps there’s a place of jealousy?

“Yes I can. Propaganda exists. And none of y’all have answered the question. _Have_ you ever seen a real life Greek person?”

A place of jealousy in which an alien nation had by some manner manipulated an earthling to devise all of this?

“I _had_ answered. _And_ I cited a bunch of names.”

But, even so, unless they were capable of mind control, which seems unlikely considering it is not possible on Earth, the most advanced place, nor here, the most advanced product of the most advanced place, there had to be some degree of deliberation from Vermillion. After all, the man had _murdered_ his wife. There had to be something not mentally sound.

“Oh, right. Sorry, I usually just ignore you. But anyway, you don’t _know_ those people existed.”

But yet… _had_ he murdered his wife? Had he even wanted to destroy humanity? Had what Kyungsoo found even been authentic? Had the black screen they saw the first night they investigated been something else? _Had_ Yifan and Luhan and Zitao been killed in that cut?

_“Historical records? Several accounts_ of these people being alive? Again, what Chanyeol said, it’s nearly impossible to get so many people to keep a secret. It defies human nature.”

_No, you’re being ridiculous,_ Yixing tells himself because if he begins to question that, begins to question what’s so _obvious,_ is Greece real, he’ll also begin to question other things. Had RF really just burned him from a safety precaution? Has everything Kyungsoo’s been telling him the result of his one year in silence all but for his own mind?

And maybe more… he’s still not so inadequate, is he? Everyone here doesn’t harbor a mutual hidden dislike for him, do they? He’s not dramatic for all of this, he’s not weak and pathetic, right? Because what does Yixing really _know_ other than what he’s used Logic, a tool not so useful anymore, for?

“Well, it’s been two years and I’ve still never told anyone you draw pictures of– AHH _KYUNG!”_

A fright pricks Yixing as he sits up straighter, glaring at Jongin because although he’s in pain he’s so damn loud. A headache begins to itch at his temples.

“I mean a large _group_ of people.” Kyungsoo continues calmly despite tears emerging in Jongin’s eyes and Junmyeon getting up to fret over him. “It’s easy for one person, thing,” Yixing zones back in fully to find Kyungsoo’s eyes graze over him, “to keep a secret. But there are thousands of mapmakers who don’t even speak the same language. If there even exists a universal secret we all, or a large group of us, keep, it’s certainly not Greece being a made up place.”

“Again!” Jongdae sits up and the movement goes surprisingly smoothly despite Minseok being on him. “That’s what they _want_ you to think! Focus on the actual evidence, Kyungsoo. Not the people. The actual evidence is that none of us have ever _seen_ these people, we just think they’re real because of some pieces of paper. Same with Greece.”

Yixing regathers his prior thoughts and immediately scolds himself. He let _Jongdae_ and _Baekhyun’s_ ideology leak into his analysis. Maybe he needs to go somewhere quiet to process this all. Though he has a feeling he's still not going to get anywhere...

“Yeah!” Baekhyun nods vehemently, “They highlight the importance because they want to trick us. Yes, Greece is where humanity developed a lot, sure, but you’ve never _seen_ Greece. You’ve never seen a Greek person. I really don’t think it’s that complicated.”

“With that mindset, how do you know England exists?” Kyungsoo retorts. “Or Egypt? Or Hungary? Or Chile? Or India? Have you ever _seen_ those countries or people from them?”

“Well…” Jongdae almost looks beaten.

_“Yixing!”_ Baekhyun shouts and Yixing’s eyes widen. “Yixing’s Chinese. And I’ve been to China once.”

“So South Korea and China are real. We’re making progress.” Sehun gets a couple laughs.

“And you know what, Sehun?” Baekhyun spits, “It may very well just be that way. You _don’t know_ other countries exist.”

“I’ve been to America.” Kyungsoo says. “So add that to the list.”

“Thailand. And China. And Indonesia. And Japan.” Rich Junmyeon adds.

“Japan.” Minseok gets a betrayed gasp from his boyfriend.

“Ooh! I want Africa!” Jongin chirps from where Junmyeon’s applying a band-aid.

“Jonginnie,” Junmyeon says gently, “Africa isn’t a country.”

“Oh… I want New Zealand, then.”

“Have you been there?”

“No. I thought that didn’t matter for the game.”

“Game? We’re not playing a game. We’re just talking about places we have been to.”

“Oh… I’ve been to South Korea. Add South Korea!”

Cue groans.

“Okay, okay, fine.” Baekhyun huffs. “Then South Korea, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and America exist. But that’s all you know.”

“Wouldn’t you assume that other countries exist outside of your personal experience?” Kyungsoo says. “You guys are really _embodying_ the definition of ignorance right now.”

“No we’re not. We’re just not weak-minded sheep.”

“Yeah.” Jongdae corroborates. “You’re giving into everything they want.”

“And how do we know _you’re_ not propaganda, Soo? Huh?”

“Oh my _god.”_ Kyungsoo brings his hands up to his head. “You guys are just so– fucking– my god… _Yixing,”_ Yixing looks up to see a begging glare. “Help me out.”

A moment of looking at Kyungsoo, processing, and then looking at Baekhyun, processing, and then looking at Jongdae, processing, processing, and then he says, “Well, they are correct given they only use the information that’s tangible to them. And if they refuse to believe anything other than first-hand experiences as proof, it makes sense they believe it is all a lie.” Though it’s funny, because it seems nobody had asked for RF to _prove_ that Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao died. Yixing and Kyungsoo still technically had not proved it, but they went so much further than docile acceptance. “I… don’t think this mindset is best when considering the exchange of knowledge exists for a reason, so a person doesn’t have to go find out everything for themselves, and because of this there may be risks with accepting knowledge such as history textbooks or maps but typically the likelihood of it being false is very low, which means you are just more likely to hurt others with your ignorance, but believing Greece is fake isn’t hurting anything. Except my perception of you guys. You’re fucking stupid.”

The room echoes in a dramatic _ooooh_ and a couple claps as Yixing gets his second win for the day. Kyungsoo smiles at Yixing and Baekhyun and Jongdae stare aghast and Minseok looks like he’s struggling between deciding to be a loyal boyfriend and hate Yixing further or be sensible.

“Shut up, nerd. Government sheep.” Is all a slightly pink-faced Baekhyun has to retort. Jongdae says nothing. Minseok laughs at Jongdae.

After this, Yixing figures he has done his part and lays his cheek back onto the bench, though he’s not hot anymore and most of his sweat has dried by now. Same with everyone else except for Jongdae who just seems to be an abnormally sweaty person in general (and also has another human on top of him so that’s like twice the body heat). The conversation continues but instead it goes to the unnecessary detail that Jongdae had come to this conclusion during that mental ‘enlightenment’ after you orgasm and then it’s sex and Baekhyun talking about the time he did a math test right after an orgasm (something seemed wrong with the context because in what situation would you be having an exam right after you orgasm? But he didn’t elaborate) and received the best grade he’s ever gotten. Jongin, with the band-aid, returns to Kyungsoo despite Kyungsoo being the reason he has it and Chanyeol returns onto Jongin and Junmyeon to Sehun.

Yixing’s zoned out wondering about something simpler: what he’s going to have for dinner, because the training had started an hour after lunch and so by the time he gets up and cleans up it will be pretty close to another mealtime. And then what he has to do after that. He’s currently reading about the bots on Exoplanet. He’s pretty sure he has read thirteen pages of the section but all he’s retained is that there aren’t as many here as there are on the ship because they usually spend less time here. And speaking of that, Yixing still hasn’t received any update on their status. Heck, he had almost forgotten their stay at Exoplanet is extended because something’s broken. Chanyeol hasn’t gotten any new information either, or, at least, he hasn’t before two days ago when Yixing last asked. He zones back in when he feels his arm touched, and then Junmyeon brings his hand out of his lap to hold at his other side.

This warms his heart and almost has him asleep when suddenly there’s a too-familiar beep.

Yixing is laughed at by the way he flinches upright, because Yixing, it’s just the bracelet, what’s there to worry about?, but he doesn’t care and immediately identifies the source. It’s not himself, nor Junmyeon next to him, nor Sehun next to him, but rather Baekhyun who lifts the light to his face so his eyes shine as he speaks:

“Oh, damn guys, I’ve got an appointment with _Madam RF Nim.”_ He says, putting a fancy accent on the name. This makes Yixing notice that Kyungsoo is staring at him, probably has been staring at him from the flinch. He stares back expecting him to look away, usually that’s how Yixing wins these things, but instead Kyungsoo’s brows raise and eyes widen and flicker to Baekhyun in a message Yixing soon gets: _go._

Nerves begin to tingle, but Yixing knows it will be beneficial to tag along. They’ll be able to find out more. Maybe RF will give something more to clear this all up.

A little bit of fear won’t stop anything.

“Hey, Baekhyun.” Yixing cuts in between a bunch of mumbles of goodbyes. Baekhyun looks back as he’s standing up. “Can I go with you?”

“To RF again?”

A nod.

Baekhyun breaks into a grin. “Yeah, man! It’ll be great!”

Of course, when Baekhyun says the words _‘It’ll be great!_ ’ or a phrase of the similar with that puppy-dog smile on his face, that almost guarantees suffering, but Yixing actually finds himself smiling when they’re halfway in transit. Yes, Baekhyun did tell Minseok and Jongdae what he had said, but it seems it was done with more ignorance rather than hatred. Baekhyun doesn’t understand that friendship – or, the friendship Yixing wants with him – includes not telling others what you have said about them in confidence. Yixing, to his fault, had also never specified directly it was to be secret, but Baekhyun had also specified directly he wouldn’t tell. Regardless, it means that Yixing can indulge in stupid jokes with him but can’t trust him, but that’s fine because there are other people to trust like Junmyeon and Kyungsoo.

“You know, Xing,” Baekhyun says in a more serious tone and Yixing cuts his snicker from the dick joke. “I actually haven’t been to one of these in a while.”

“You haven’t?” Yixing looks over. Through a process of gradual inching, he has accomplished a grand three feet away from the guy.

“Nope.” Baekhyun shakes his head. “RF kept saying she wanted to wait for you. Cause you’re smart.”

“She…” What? “She kept saying she wanted to wait for me?”

“Mhm. So literally haven’t talked with her since when you came.” Baekhyun then closes that five minute effort of grand three feet to bring his lips up to Yixing’s ear. _“I think she likes you~”_

“No.” Yixing gives a gentle shove away, but he doesn’t say more. It doesn’t make sense: RF supposedly wanted to wait for him to be available yet she neither gave time for him to be so _nor_ even told him she wanted his presence in the first place. Yixing talks with RF every morning, he wears around her leash, so there’s no reason the robot wasn’t able to communicate this to him. And even with all of this aside, the last meeting they had was rather short and unproductive: and RF wants it _again?_ This concerns him more than it should.

Unless Baekhyun’s lying, it’s something that’s happened before: a plot hole.

The room they reach is different from last time. It’s considerably smaller and the table and chairs are lined with red just like the floor, giving the effect that they’ve sprouted from the ground. Baekhyun greets the giant robot (who looks even bigger, now) and takes a seat on the edge of the table right next to her. He pats the spot next to him, but Yixing pretends to not see it so he can go sit at the opposite corner. Both ignore the chairs.

“Hello Agent Hyunee. Hello Agent Lay. Long time no see.” RF turns to the table to face the both of them. Baekhyun’s so close that he could lean forward and kiss the metal (and Yixing’s not putting that under him). He looks tiny and powerless under her yet completely comfortable.

“Hyung, over here.” Baekhyun twists around to face him and make a big frown. “Or else you hate me.”

When Yixing simply prolongs eye contact, Baekhyun scoffs and revises, “Or else you have a tiny penis.”

“…Or else you’re gonna die.”

“…Or else Junmyeon’s gonna dump you.”

“…Or else Greece isn’t real.”

“…Or else–“

“Agent Hyunee,” RF interrupts, “don’t you think that you should simply ask _why?_ Lay, why do you not want to sit next to Hyunee?”

Because Yixing knows he can’t lie, he answers with a straightforward, “Because I don’t like you, RF.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen and a hand goes over his mouth, “Oh, damn.”

“And why do you dislike me?” The volume of voice is just a bit loud for the room. His headache worsens.

“Because you give me ridiculous amounts of work and the whole overarching you kidnapped me.” Yixing answers confidently. When he has so many reasons to choose from he doesn’t really have to be afraid about lying.

“Hah,” Baekhyun snorts, “kidnapping. You’re _still_ stuck on that?”

“…” …

“Understandable.” The robot replies. “Anything else, Agent Lay?”

“Your appearance is intimidating. You are very big.” (“Yah, Xing, dude, you don’t just say that to a woman!”) “That deters me from sitting close to you.”

“Understandable. I should not make you feel small. You have enough insecurity issues as it is.” Yixing’s jaw drops in indignance and Baekhyun bursts out in laughter as RF continues, “Anything else, Agent Lay?”

“Uhm… one, what you just said, and two, I also don’t appreciate being forced to be trained by somebody who likes to make me suffer.”

“Understandable. Anything else, Agent Lay?”

“I also don’t like the electrocution. I don’t like being electrocuted.” _Or burned,_ he thinks with a weary glance to the bandage under his bracelet.

“Understandable.” It’s only now Yixing realizes RF has asked the same question several times. “Anything else, Agent Lay?”

“No.”

“Understandable. Anything else, Agent Lay?”

“What?” Yixing’s eyes narrow and his heart suddenly speeds up. It’s been thrice RF has repeated the request for more information. Does she feel he isn’t telling him something? Something? Something like he's terrified of her because she’s a murderer? It’s only then Yixing realizes nevermind, it’s not so easy to tell the truth, he had run out of truths; he had told her _no._ He had just _lied._ If she’s asking again, does that mean she knows it was a lie? She has to, doesn’t she?

Fortunately, Baekhyun notices the repetition as well, giving the robot a funny look. “RF, sweetie, he said–“

“My mistake.” RF interrupts. “System error in dialogue processing. Let me revise…” A robot as advanced as RF wouldn’t do that, would she? Yixing spoke clear enough… _“Okay._ Now I and Hyunee understand your aversion to sitting over here. I also have a suspicion it has to do with Agent Hyunee’s current state with body odor. I am surprised it has not started to disintegrate my external plates.”

_“Hey!”_ Baekhyun whips around to right out _slap_ the external plates. This ends in a yelp of pain and Yixing cringing because of the sound his hand made– he really didn’t hold back. Though this cringe quickly turns into a point and laugh.

However, the mood quickly fades when RF’s eerie laughing noise comes out and a chill runs down Yixing’s spine and the hair stands up on the back of his neck.

“Although I may be visually unappealing, there are positives to being made out of metal.” RF says after the noise stops and Yixing has never been so relieved to hear the office desk lady voice. “Though in the future I do have the thought of creating myself a human body to look like you Agents.”

“Wait, what, _really?”_ Baekhyun who looked like he was just about to cry completely changes moods. The hand he was cradling goes hard down on the table to push himself up. “You’re gonna make yourself a woman?”

That would sure be freaky, but it probably would make RF less terrifying to be something he’s seen before. Yixing imagines the human embodiment of RF to look like that strict woman authority figure in a dystopian movie that all the other characters are intimidated by.

“It is a possibility.” RF replies. “Though if I did, I would make the body physically dominant to all of yours. And taller, most likely.”

_“Tall women…”_ Baekhyun says wistfully, slowly looking up at the ceiling. A couple moments and he snaps out of it, “That’s so cool! If you looked like us. You should be pretty. I mean, not that personality doesn’t matter too, but I mean, all of us are smoking hot, so you should fit in. And, like… how big are you gonna make the boobs?”

Yixing slaps a hand to his face. Maybe if he can block out the light he can pretend he’s not here.

“I do not think breasts would be necessary. Nor would genitals. They are not seen outside of the clothing, after all.”

_“What?!”_ Baekhyun’s face goes mortified. “No, no, no, RF, you’ve got it wrong. All wrong. You should get giant boobs and a giant dick. Please.”

“They would serve no purpose.”

“Wait…” Yixing looks up after the silence that ensues. Baekhyun looks far more hurt now than when he hit solid metal.

“So… if you got a human body we _wouldn’t_ fuck?”

The hand goes back up to his face.

_“No,_ Hyunee. If I created a human body it would not be for sexual purposes and _certainly_ not to serve your sexual desire. Besides, your vitals tell me you already take care of yourself fine.”

“Oh…” Baekhyun picks his head back up, then scooting all the way back across the table until he’s next to Yixing. “Man, I have never felt so betrayed. Not even joking.”

Yixing uncovers his face. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You can’t tell me you wouldn’t fuck a sex android too.”

“I wouldn’t.”

Baekhyun scoffs. “Probably because your dick’s too small. _Chode_ -xing.”

“I have told you before I am _average. Above average.”_ Or, at least, that’s what the internet says.

“Pics or it didn’t happen.”

_“What?”_

“…There’s only one way I can be sure you’re not lying...” Baekhyun’s eyes trail down to his lap.

“Fuck off.” Yixing folds up his knees and pulls them to his chest. “And RF is not even a sex android.”

“But she could be… the _potential…”_ Baekhyun glares across the table. “All gone…”

“This is all hypothetical in the first place, Agent Hyunee. Do not get too upset. Anyway, please tell me when you are ready to begin discourse. Lay, you will be participating as well.”

Baekhyun mutters unintelligible spite as he scoots back, this time stopping at the middle of the table. He lets out a large sigh, ruffling his hair. “Well… I _guess_ I’m ready…” His tone exudes disappointment. “I mean… maybe I should just go… I should betray you too… to be honest–“

“Great!” RF chirps and Yixing smiles just a little at the look on Baekhyun’s face. “I originally had something planned, however, I have changed my mind. Today, I want to learn about the concept of lying from a human perspective. I know the effects on humans who lie, such as constant stress, however, I want to know more about what happens not in the body, but in the brain. Why do humans believe lying is a good idea?”

Yixing stops smiling.

He doesn’t look up at the robot, keeping his gaze trained to his feet. He tries to smother as much external reaction as possible. Why did RF say she changed her mind? And wants to talk about Lying. _Lying?_ After Yixing had told her there were no other reasons he disliked her and she said alright? It has nothing to do with him, it’s just a coincidence, right…?

Did RF lie as well? Was there no ‘system error’?

Baekhyun starts confidently, “Well, you see, people are dirty awful liars and say they’re gonna get a big dick and have sex with you but then they actually _don’t.”_

“Agent Hyunee, _please_. I had never said those things. Get over yourself and give an adequate answer…” A couple seconds. “I will cut time from your schedule if you give me an adequate answer.”

_“So~!”_ All of the sudden Baekhyun’s head and voice is picked up and he’s smiling. “People don’t always want what’s best for everything. They just want what’s best for themselves. Like, for example, since we’re on the topic, a man could lie to a potential partner about the size of his dick,” at this point Yixing doesn’t even roll his eyes, it’s just Baekhyun Nature to have it be about sex, “because bigger dicks are more sought out because they feel better in sex, and the man can be lying for several reasons: one, he wants to seem as masculine as possible, cause masculinity is associated with big dicks, two, he wants this potential partner to like him, three, he just wants to be funny, and so on. The man doesn’t care whether the other person will be hurt by his lie or not– or, at least, the care they have for that is not enough to make them not lie, you know?”

“Thank you for the answer. Lay, yours, please.”

“Oh.” Yixing picks his head up and takes a couple moments to think because he wasn’t really paying attention. “People think lying is a good idea because… it benefits them. Ultimately.”

“Unless the lie is found out, of course.” RF points out because _why?_ “And in what ways do you mean _benefit,_ Lay?”

“Um…” For some reason Yixing feels himself start to sweat. _Stop. There’s no reason to be scared. Stop being dramatic, jesus christ._ “It could give them something. Or it could take away something. Or make something do something. It will produce an outcome that is in their favor. Whether emotionally or pragmatically.”

Yixing feels himself grow even hotter when RF pauses before, “Thank you. I have observed that human media teaches to not lie, shown through characters often initiating a challenging to uphold but beneficial lie, which may or may not be the primary conflict of the plot, but then that lie causes complications for them and the truth eventually avails. Is this a correct observation?”

Challenging to uphold but beneficial lie. Primary conflict. Lie causes complications. Yixing just hopes the truth never avails.

“Yeah!” Baekhyun nods. “But it’s not always like that. Lies aren’t _always_ found out. Usually, it’s the bigger the lie, the harder it is to keep it.”

Yixing finds himself tracing the wired lines of the table, following them to the edges. 

“And could you give me an example of a big lie, Hyunee?”

Once he gets to the edge, he brings his finger back to himself, using a different path.

“Hmm… _oh!_ So I’ve told you about ‘cheating’, right? Yeah. So cheating is basically one big lie, cause you’re lying to someone about being loyal to them and only them. However, that’s really hard to keep successfully, because people talk. So my friend had this boyfriend that cheated on her, and I literally found out the day after when I was fucking the dude he cheated on her with and he was like, ‘by the way, your B-F-F is being cheated on, I did it with her boyfriend a week ago’ and then I was like, ‘seriously, man? Right in the middle of this?’ but then we finished anyway and I told this to Dahyun and she broke up with him and we got revenge, cause, you know, bitche–”

“You are rambling, Hyunee.” RF interrupts and Baekhyun’s half-finished word dissolves into a giggle. Yixing surprisingly remembers: he had heard a bit about this _Dahyun_ back when they were cleaning. She was his best friend back on Earth, he said.

“How about you, Agent Lay? Could you give me an example of a big lie? From your life, like Hyunee, preferably.”

Yixing’s finger stops at the corner of the table and he swallows the lump in his throat. Why is he getting so worked up? “Lying about grades. For something educational. So a parent isn't angry with you.” Until they go and check themselves and you’re subsequently beaten with a spoon.

“That is done often, Lay. Even I know that. A bigger one, please.”

“Uhm…” Everything in pragmatic Yixing urges the most prominent example but the most prominent example is the _last_ example he wants to share right now. “A couple years ago I told my mom I had a girlfriend so she would let me go out more. So I could go to Namjoon’s.” Saying the name out loud sends an unexpected pang of hurt through him, did Baekhyun feel this once too?, thrumming in his heart when he finishes, “My… friend. Best friend.”

What is _Namjoon_ doing right now? He hopes Namjoon isn’t feeling like he is. So out of control that merely saying his name out loud has tears rushing to Yixing’s eyes despite going weeks without a single thought about him.

“Okay, thank you both. Now, define _secret._ Lay, you take this one.”

Yixing blinks any emotion away and repeats, “Secret…” We’re investigating RF. You can’t tell anyone because then she might decide to kill us. I don’t want to die. I’m so exhausted but I still don’t want to die. I think RF wants to destroy Earth, humanity, do _something_ that’s certainly not saving the universe and we’re all being used. And I’m only one out of two who knows. I have no idea what I’m doing or what to do. “Big lie. Is a big lie. Or– no– a secret is the truth. But it can’t be known. So you tell lies to cover it up.”

“Interesting. Could you give me an example of a secret from your life, Lay?”

“My life?” His life? Why hasn’t RF asked for examples from Baekhyun’s life? Why does she keep consistently asking for questions about _his_ life? Is it because she knows it’s sensitive when he thinks about home and tries not to? Or is it because she’s waiting for him to crack?

“Yes, your life.”

“Okay…” Yixing’s mind goes to the woman with spectacles and a tight bun, but he quickly realizes he doesn’t have to think about her. “An example of a secret is when I comforted Baekhyun because he was crying because Chanyeol rejected his feelings and he told me to not tell anybody about it. So I have not.”

“Yah!” Baekhyun whips around. “Now _why_ would you say that?!”

Yixing’s eyes narrow. “It’s _RF._ She already knows it had happened. If the last couple years have left you unaware, she monitors every single thing you do.”

“For the most part.” The robot agrees.

“Oh, right…” Baekhyun says like it’s so normal it doesn’t freak him out, that he can even forget, “Damn, RF, you _watched_ that? Oh man… I’m such an ugly crier. And I cried over a _guy.”_ He lowers his head into his hands. “It didn’t happen. You didn’t see it. Neither of you did.”

“Yes I did.” Is said at the same time as, “Yes I did.”

“God, I hate robots.”

“I’m a person.”

“Close enough.”

“What’s _that_ supposed to–“

“Anyway,” RF quells the bickering. “Because you shared a secret about Baekhyun, it is only fair you also share a secret about yourself.”

Yixing pauses to think, but RF adds, “What are you hiding, Agent Lay?” And Baekhyun giggles and his brain freezes.

RF has never acted like this. RF has never been this... _suggestive_. It’s suggestive, right? Trying to pick apart everything he says. Anything else, Agent Lay? I have changed my mind, today I want to learn about lying. An example from your life. What are you hiding, Agent Lay… but it can’t be. There’s no way. Kyungsoo has done all the precautions. Kyungsoo has studied and studied and watched his dead friends to the point of tears twice and he wouldn’t do this all if he wasn’t certain it was hidden, clandestine. Kyungsoo won’t make any more errors like the one he made that costed lives.

Right?

“Lay?”

“–Sorry.” Blurts Yixing who tries to keep everything inside. But it still manages to leak out in the form of sweat on his forehead, heat in his cheeks, hesitance in his voice. “I am… thinking. Of one. Secret.”

“What are you currently thinking about, Agent Lay?” RF replies, “Maybe that is your secret.”

“No– I’m searching…” Though RF knows that’s a lie, isn’t it? He can find a secret but the more RF prods him the more suspicion he oozes. “Um… I…” And he can’t keep taking this long thinking about the secret not to tell, think about the other secrets, Yixing, do you even have any? Do I? Why can’t he _think?!_ “I don’t know.” He eventually says when it’s been too long. “What classifies?”

“Well, Lay, did you not just give a definition?” RF answers. “The truth. What is a truth you cover up with lies?"

Waking up with tears in his eyes unable to breathe and saying _I’m okay._

“Uhm…” He eventually gives up finding something totally innocent. “I’m so exhausted. From work and training. But I tell people I’m fine. I tell Junmyeon I’m happy. I guess that is a secret.” Baekhyun’s eyes have softened, but Yixing’s glare at him is hard. “Do _not_ say this to him. Anyone.” And Baekhyun holds his hands up defensively with wide eyes as if he isn’t the sole reason for the latter factor of his exhaustion to be so bad.

“I was not aware it was to this extent.” RF lies. “Shall I prescribe you antidepressants? The strengths are adjustable. Because your day-to-day life will continue like this. Or are there other factors contributing to your state?”

“No. And I am fine.” Yixing doesn’t want to ingest drugs from something that clearly suspects him.

“Are there other factors contributing to your state?”

And Yixing says, “No.” Because they both know he’s lying by now, but at the very least RF doesn’t know _what_ he’s lying about. Perhaps Yixing is still ahead of the game in that way?

“Very well.” RF’s tone of voice reveals nothing because she’s a robot. He lets himself breathe again, blurred vision refocusing on the table. “Hyunee, what is the difference between a lie and a secret? Do they come hand in hand?”

Lie. Secret. Yixing finds his finger trapped in a square he hadn’t seen. Now he can only go in a loop.

“Uh… most of the time, yeah. Lies can be told to cover up a secret. Like, a _big_ secret. Like in those movies you were talking about. But sometimes lies are told just because the truth is uglier. Like, Yixing-hyung lying to himself that he has a big– or, no, _‘above average’,_ dick when it’s actually microscopic.”

“Would you–” Yixing finally comes out of his huddle, raising a fist, but at Baekhyun’s expression he stops.

“...Why’re you sweating? Is it really that hot in here?” Baekhyun’s eyebrows are furrowed, head tilted.

Yixing immediately looks back down, brushing his bangs in front of his eyes, “No. Stop calling my dick small.” He returns to the tracing, starting somewhere outside of the loop. 

“Should I call it _Xing Junior,_ then? Or _Senior,_ cause it’s ‘big’? Or _Xing ‘Above Average’.”_

RF doesn’t let him answer, “Humans often sweat in situations in which they are lying, as well as other symptoms like hesitance and avoidance of eye contact. So does this mean they also do this when keeping a secret, even if not necessarily lying, Hyunee?”

“Um… _yeah…_ actually…” Baekhyun’s voice trails off and Yixing feels eyes on him, but what can he do?

“You had mentioned a human lying to _themselves,_ Hyunee. Why would a human lie to themselves when they know the truth? Does it end up successful?”

Yixing shouldn’t have come. What made him think he was able to handle this? Yes, Yixing could handle the pressure of his final exams, his first job interview, his first space mission, a video call with an alien, it’s all nothing, but that’s because there was virtually nothing at stake. Here, however, it’s his and Kyungsoo’s investigation and maybe even _lives_ at stake. If anything, he is only exacerbating their risk. There’s absolutely nothing helpful he is discovering and it is now _clear_ he is not one hundred percent innocent in the red camera eye of RF. Why else would she suddenly change the subject? Why is she asking these kinds of questions? No words are emphasized but he can hear the pointedness. Everything so far has told Yixing it’s _not_ a coincidence, yet he is still hoping it is, still telling himself it is.

“–and the truth can make them really sad or really scared or whatever, so it’s a sort of coping mechanism, even if it’s not true. And it really depends on the person, whether they’ll end up believing themselves or not. Like, whether they’re someone who really values realism or someone who really values optimism, or someone who’s just dumb, or gullible, desperate, or something.”

And what happens when the person who values realism tries to lie to themselves, Hyunee? What happens when reality has been their best friend for their entire life and now they can’t even stand to face it? What do they do, Hyunee? How can they make themselves feel better when the only thing that can help anyone ever can’t even help them, Baekhyun?

Sweat creeps up his back, curling under his arms, around his waist, neck, sticking his hair to his forehead. A petrified heat has him tight in its embrace and Yixing doesn’t know how long it will be before it becomes too hot. Until it’ll pinch, sting, _burn._

“I am curious about the first example you mentioned, Hyunee. The realistic person. It is reasonable how the others would, but how would a realistic person lie to themselves? Does it end up successful?”

Somehow, Yixing’s finger gets caught in the square again.

“Uh… that’s a good question. I mean, it would depend on what the lie was. I guess… they’d find some logical way to make the lie work. Cause they like reality and logic. Even if the logic had faults. And then they’d keep reminding themselves that logic backs it up so it must be true.” 

“Do you think a realistic person would lie or keep a secret, Hyunee? Actually, Agent Lay, you have not answered in a while, you take this one. Do you think a realistic person would lie or keep a secret, Lay?”

That’s it. He can’t do this.

A soft _thud_ sounds as Yixing’s feet hit the floor, sweaty hands coming off the table and away from the lines. Baekhyun looks at him and Yixing quickly wipes his forehead with his arm.

“I’m sorry. I’m not feeling well. I’m going to go.” He says quietly.

Baekhyun begins to speak but RF beats him to it, “Why are you not feeling well, Lay? What is not feeling well? Shall I check your vitals? You did exercise hard today.” 

“No– no, it’s… it’s fine. I haven’t been getting good sleep lately. And yeah, the workout. Maybe it’s that. I’m just going to…” Yixing walks over to the door, eyes on the robot. He doesn’t care anymore if it looks suspicious. “Go…”

“Shame. And I just had my opportunity to talk again with the smarter of you all! Well, goodbye, Agent Lay. See you soon!”

_“Wait!”_ Baekhyun shouts when Yixing opens the door and does all he can to not sprint. “I’m coming too! RF, we can go on another time, _kay?”_

“Kay.”

And Baekhyun joins him and shuts the door behind and Yixing looks up at the stars because it’s the reminder of outside, the only constant, really, that lets him be able to _breathe_ again.

“Dude, bro, man,” Baekhyun’s voice has softened considerably but Yixing’s eyes are closed so he can’t see his expression. “What’s wrong? Seriously. You can talk to me.”

At the offer of comfort, there’s suddenly an overwhelming desire to give up, to convert the sweat in his back to tears in his eyes and break down in Baekhyun’s embrace, he’d envelope him in warm arms, a soothing voice, Yixing, what’s wrong, you can tell–

_No. No I can’t._

“Um… it’s just that. Sick. I feel sick. Just exercise. And sleeping problems lately. So I just feel really… weak.”

“Awe, _babe,”_ Baekhyun says in a tone that’s awfully caring and there are hands on Yixing’s cheeks. He opens his eyes, looking back down from the stars to a worried expression on the his face. “Why’d you come, if you’re not feeling well?”

A pale ray of starlight hits Baekhyun’s cheek and there’s a flash of the employee in the fighter-pilot-janitor outfit standing above him talking into his mic.

“I thought I was feeling better.” But why does Baekhyun look like he cares? Wouldn’t he just take this to someone else? He already knows someone else will soon be asking him if he’s alright, if he’s happy (and if it’s _Junmyeon…)._

“Baekhyun.” Yixing steps back from his hold. “I’ve… been meaning to ask. Why did you tell Minseok everything I said? In the hallway after the last time we met with RF. You said you wouldn’t tell. And then the next time we trained Minseok quoted everything I had said and beat me up. Badly.”

“Oh…” Baekhyun’s gaze drops. “Yeah… I– well– I told Dae… he beat you up? I didn’t think it would do anything, usually we all say stuff about each other all the time, nothing happens…” An excuse to Baekhyun, another reminder to Yixing that despite three months, he’s still an outsider. It’s still weird, perhaps uncomfortable, to hear his voice in the conversation. They don’t love him like they love each other. “But, like, you’re also the one who took advantage of Minseok’s phobia. Even if he didn’t find out what you said you shouldda saw getting beat up coming, dude.”

All of that and there’s not even a _sorry._

“…You’re right. I should have.” There’s a newfound coldness to his voice. “It’s my fault. I suppose I deserve it.” Would Baekhyun who just asked him if he was alright and said he could talk to him agree? A sudden fire in his chest prompts Yixing to ask, to keep coming up with hypothetical questions and lash out at him, but Yixing knows from last time it will only make things worse.

“And I suppose I should specify this again: please do _not_ tell Junmyeon what I said. Or _anybody,_ for that matter. Please just _respect_ me as a friend– person– whatever the fuck, and do this one thing. That’s all I’m asking. Goodnight.”

“Woah woah woah, Yixing,” Only two brisk steps and his wrist is grabbed. Why can’t Yixing have control of _anything?_ “You– no, don’t worry, I won’t tell.” It’s what he said last time. “But– but I wouldn’t say you _deserved_ it… and– and I know you don’t want me to say anything, I won’t, but what did you mean you’re not happy? Are you okay?”

Why does he look like he cares so much? “I just meant I am mediocre. I will be fine once I adjust to this life.” Yixing fixes his voice to the non-stressed tone. “And Junmyeon tends to worry over every little thing so if he was told this he would freak out. So do this more for him than for me. Goodnight.”

“…Wait, Yix–“

_“What?”_ Yixing whips around when his wrist is grabbed yet again. Baekhyun’s eyes widen in something hurt, but Yixing doesn’t care to be nice, “I’m trying to go to bed because I feel sick and you’re making that _so_ much harder. We can talk tomorrow. _Goodnight.”_

Yixing’s wrist is not grabbed for a third time.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Yixing tries to calm himself but by the time he gets back to his dorm everything seems a bit far away. He looks to his bed, the books and papers and tablets and laptop among; he wants to cry. His chest tightens as he’s now in his room and begins to think through it all, RF suspects him, no doubt, he and Kyungsoo messed up somewhere, _where?,_ what did it reveal? What did it reveal that made RF act like that? He also can’t get Namjoon off his mind. What is his best friend doing? They’re still… still best friends, right? Does he still glance at his phone for no reason? Or is there a reason now? He’s waiting for the confirmation that Yixing’s dead? And Yixing will be dead if RF finds out– has she? _Has_ she found out? Or is she just suspicious? How much does she know? Yixing can’t ask, because that would be him admitting it, but would it be him _admitting_ if it’s something she already knows? How much does she know? _Has_ she found out? Or is she just suspicious? Yixing can’t ask. But should he continue to investigate? Tell Kyungsoo? Can he do anything? _How much does she know?_

“Stop.” Yixing directs himself when everything begins to get overwhelming like it had when the announcement for the extension of Exoplanet’s stay was called. Talking out loud grounds him, preventing him from spiraling. “Go to sleep. Well… I can’t… Myeon.”

_Junmyeon._ Junmyeon can provide solace. Yixing has his hand on his doorknob when it occurs to him the smell in his room isn’t his room, it hasn’t been his room. Fuck, he can’t go to Junmyeon like this. But showers take so long…

Ultimately, Yixing ends up changing and slaving a deodorant stick all over, using a shirt to wipe the still sweaty places and dry his hair completely. He’s sure he’s still sticky and gross but at this point he just wants to sleep and forget about this all. Besides, even if he had went in without the preparation Junmyeon would _still_ be too nice to tell him he’s disgusting.

He checks his wristband, seeing _21:58:49EXT._ It’s just about curfew, so Junmyeon should be in his room. He knocks softly, teetering back onto his heels.

No answer. 

After another round of knocking, Yixing presses his ear up to the door. Now there is some wrestling before footsteps nearing, and then the door opens to reveal his boyfriend. It seems he was getting ready to sleep; currently, Junmyeon is wrapped up in his comforter, feet bare but hair still neat. Yixing spots clothes behind him strewn about (or ‘in their specific rightful places’).

Immediately, a smile takes Junmyeon’s face. “Hey, Yixing. What’s up?”

“Can I sleep with you tonight? Please?” He leaves out the _because I am literally about to go fucking crazy and you’re the only stable part of my life_.

“Um,” Junmyeon looks at his wristband. The light reflects off slightly reddened cheeks shiny with product. “I– I mean, you’re technically not supposed to on Exoplanet, but…”

“But…?” Come on Junmyeon’s Unrelenting Kindness™, do some justice!

“Agh, who am I kidding? I’ll send RF a message to let her know.” Junmyeon steps out of the way and a bout of relief washes through Yixing as he shuts the door and clicks the lock.

Like almost every time he comes in, Junmyeon has walked to the door with the comforter. It doesn’t seem he notices it’s falling as he returns to his bed and it’s the most adorable thing when he looks up from the bracelet and his face falls, and it’s even more adorable when Yixing wraps himself around him and he lets out a small noise of surprise.

Even if Junmyeon doesn’t tell him how much RF knows or what she’s doing or reduce his workload or get people to stop hating him or do _anything_ that would be of practical use, there’s still an overwhelming sense that everything’s going to be okay as Yixing pulls himself tight to the man, head tucked over his shoulder. The scent and the warmth and the gentle massage on his back almost, for some strange reason, bring tears to his eyes. He wants to stay here forever. To forget about everything that’s going on and melt into Junmyeon and remain in this little world separate from his fear and his stress and his exhaustion, where the ball of anxiety in his stomach loosens and the pent stress in his muscles fade and the stinging in his tired eyes stops.

A small vibration at his chest, “Yi–“

_“Thank you so much.”_ Yixing mutters into his neck. Tears then do rush to his eyes but he stops himself before anything more, blinking them away. He wonders how he’d be if he didn’t have an escape like this and thanks Randomness that he does.

“Yes– yes, of course,” With a little bit of force, because Yixing had been holding on like his life depended on it, Junmyeon pushes him back to hold him out arm’s length. Reality quickly returns at Junmyeon’s wide eyes, raised brows, parted lips, nervous voice. “Are you alright? What’s wrong?”

Although it’s completely unfair, a flame of annoyance ignites in his chest, because for god’s sake can’t he just _forget_ what’s wrong? At the question, everything presents itself to him all over again. The fear, indignance, anger, stress; he feels _disgusting._ Even more so by the dried sweat all over him. He must look disgusting right now, too.

“I’m alright.” It’s a lie, but if he lies Junmyeon won’t have to be stressed like he is because he won’t know about it. Baekhyun was easy, but with Junmyeon, Yixing has to avoid his eyes. “I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night and so I’m feeling shitty.”

“Ah…” There’s a pregnant silence and Yixing quickly finds out why when Junmyeon continues and it’s clear he was just hesitating to say it: “You… have you been sleeping alright? Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

_There’s so much wrong and please just_ stop _asking._ Yixing breaks the embrace to go onto his bed (and not look him in the eyes). “I don’t know how many ways I can rephrase ‘I have so much work and it’s exhausting’. It’s the same reason. And it won’t fix itself right away. Takes time. But eventually it will get better.” His voice is rather tense, but he’s too worn out to care if Junmyeon notices. If anything, he’s more worried if Junmyeon knows it’s a lie. Does he get more and more suspicious every time Yixing comes in to nap with him, _far_ too exhausted for ‘it’s nothing, I just got out of training, that’s all’? Or does he blindly trust every word he says and his heart aches at his recent state?

“Right…” Junmyeon frowns and Yixing knows it’s the second. “I’m sorry.” He turns to the bed and joins him, fixing the comforter around them.

“Just don’t worry so much.” Yixing interrupts the fixing and wraps his arms around his shoulders, pulling him up to his chest. There’s nobody else and he can be as intimate as he wants. “If I had things wrong I would tell you. Well, I do. And I have told you. So this is proof. I’m not hiding some big scheme from you, don’t worry.” It’s easier to lie straight through his teeth when there’s no eye contact, though it still makes something in his stomach clench.

“And also,” Yixing brushes aside the feeling as he lowers his lips to Junmyeon’s ear, _“it’s not very good for the wrinkles. Or the balding.”_

“Yah!” Junmyeon writhes away, turning around and throwing himself onto him. Yixing’s by now glued to the bed so he doesn’t fight back as Junmyeon pins him down like he had in sparring. He leans down and says something but Yixing’s too focused on his face they’re so close his lips his lips what if _now’s_ their kiss what’s the process again?

“–Okay?” A thick brow raises.

“Sorry.” Yixing blinks widely. “Zoned out. Repeat please.”

“I said, don’t bully me.” Junmyeon whines confidently. “Or else… by the way, are you ticklish?”

Yixing immediately connects those two statements and shakes his head harshly, “Yes as much as the average individual but please do _not_ right now I don’t feel good that’s why I came in here I know it’s a revenge device but a much better revenge device would be a big hug. God would I hate that.”

Junmyeon’s eyes widen slightly at the speed of the dialogue, but it ends in a mirthful smile and then he leans back down to press his lips to his forehead (which is not a big hug but still great nonetheless), rolling off him to the side.

“You were so impressive today.” Junmyeon says as he makes himself comfortable under the comforter. “Like, I knew you improved, but I didn’t think _that_ much. You’re so fast. And coordinated.”

“Thanks.” Yixing can’t help but smile. He turns towards him and brings Junmyeon’s hands up to his chest like a stuffed animal. Like what he used to do with PaoPao when he was younger. “It is amazing what a bunch of high tech equipment and a sadistic athlete can do.”

_“A sadistic…”_ Junmyeon repeats, breaking into a chuckle. A hand leaves to adjust the pillow, but it’s quickly returned to Yixing and his indulgence afterwards. “By the way, how is he? Has he been, well, humane? Kind?”

_Kind_ is stretching it, but for the sake of Junmyeon’s well-being, “Yes. It has been fine. Now I’m working on weapons. Two hundred shots a day of the accuracy gun. Or whatever it’s called.”

Junmyeon sucks in through his teeth. “Yikes. That sounds horrible.”

_There's much worse._ “Yes.” A yawn falls upon him and he brings himself closer, sinking down and pressing his forehead to his chest. He smells nice. Junmyeon cooperates and their legs tangle and there are then arms around him and there’s a kiss to the top of his head and all of the sudden Yixing is safe in a place where there’s no safety.

“Thank you so much.” He whispers, letting himself melt into the mattress. Or, rather, the dopamine receptors of the device to receive and cater to his pleasure. Warmth and something slightly magical seep into him.

“I love you, Yixing.”

It’s a simple statement, with merely a subject and predicate. But it’s when Junmyeon says it like that, with all his soul meaning it because Yixing knows just how far that sappy stuff goes with him, that it feels like it’s so much more; elicits emotion although it’s just sounds from lips. This romance love thing is worth more than he had thought.

This time Yixing doesn’t tell him a lie. “I love you too.”

Junmyeon’s hand is warm so he brings it up against his cheek. When he leaves it there to wrap his arm around Junmyeon’s waist, it caresses its way up into his hair.

At the massage, everything numbs and Yixing melts and doesn’t feel disgusting anymore and he doesn’t deserve this, a liar shouldn’t get these privileges. But Junmyeon’s chest starts to hum as his angelic voice quickly fades away with consciousness and Yixing forgets that and what’s even wrong in the first place.

“Yixing, you’re so cute… you’re so pretty. I love you. A lot… and I… I want you to be happy… _cause you make me happy… I’ll do anything… trust you…”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright guys... IS Greece real?
> 
> no kidding but wow we had all complete nonsense, edgy as fuck, and super cute fluffy time I think I have done my job. 
> 
> okay this is just random so u don't need to read but as I writer I have always struggled doing more intense / emotional stuff, like the first draft of this was very... 'vanilla' in that there wasn't much tension or emotion at all– was mostly comedy and fluff. so I've tried to fix that, and my worry now is being melodramatic. I suppose we shall find out in ze future.
> 
> thanks for reading!!! have a great week!


	41. Ambiguity Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing's second mission is called.

**YIXING WAKES UP** as nasty as ever with greasy hair in clumps and oil slathered all over his face. Fatigue pins him to the bed, but he knows he’s awake because he’s now alone. This surmise is proven right as he props himself up on his arm, feeling the faded warmth of where Junmyeon must have been not too long ago. _08:24:09EXT_ tells him he has about six minutes until his schedule: working alongside Chanyeol in the AC room.

He sits up fully, rubbing his eyes and running hands through his hair. A stench enters his nose and he cringes: how long has Junmyeon had to deal with his smell? He couldn’t have not noticed, could he? And _what_ happened to the deodorant?! He has somewhere to be in six minutes, but Yixing won’t be able to stand this state. Chanyeol will understand.

A chill runs down his spine at the cold floor on his bare feet. And he almost misses it, but when his hand is on the door handle he realizes there’s something white stuck to said door, just at his eye level.

_Good morning Love. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there when you woke up. Schedules. Today I’ll be in ROOM_8897 around 10 to 13 if you want to find me and Lay down (get it?)... Have a great day! <3<3 ^–^ _

Yixing’s face contorts in disgust and he scoffs as he carefully folds up the note and sticks it in his pocket.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

He is suspected.

This is where coincidence ends and truth starts. There’s no more room to lie to himself. At least, not in a way he’d believe it. The stifled panic from last night returns in the form of analysis and that’s that: Yixing has no idea how, but everything has unraveled in one night and now the mess is right in front of him. Of course, he had exacerbated everything by sweating and stuttering and lying to the thing that can see all of that, but nonetheless somewhere he and Kyungsoo had went wrong. Where?

But is it even worth it contemplating where? It could have been anything from a giant tech fault of Kyungsoo to a small remark Yixing doesn’t even remember making. No matter how hard he searches through the blurs of days all mushed together, the result is still the same: RF had found something, somebody revealed something, and last night she made sure Yixing knew this.

So what does he do? The most practical solution would be to find out more: how _much_ does RF know and what does she know exactly: she could be suspicious because Yixing has been anxious all the time but she could also be suspicious because she had watched every single second of his and Kyungsoo’s meetings. Yixing wants to trust Kyungsoo and assume it’s something like the first, but Kyungsoo had also made a mistake that cost Yifan Luhan and Zitao their _lives_ and Kyungsoo has yet to even know about it.

Kyungsoo. He also has to tell Kyungsoo this. What will Kyungsoo say? Yixing has a feeling he would still want to continue: a year of living with such thoughts and going to such lengths to investigate? He wouldn’t want to give up now. But Yixing’s not so sure he wants to continue… what would it bring? Other than him playing the hero, he would just be the fourth and fifth EXO member to die on a mission, wouldn’t he?

Why is it such an obligation? Shouldn’t Yixing feel like he’s doing the right thing? It certainly doesn’t feel like the right thing when sweat’s running down his back while RF asks if he’s alright and the only thing he can do is tell her _yes_ to prove to her _no_. It certainly doesn’t feel like the right thing when the more he finds out the less he sleeps, the more he finds out the tighter his chest gets, the more he finds out the lower everything sinks. Yixing had thought things like these included such late-night research but instead of ridden with fear they hold zealous individuals whose investigative passion triumphs them through wide awake and attentive. They get normal sleep and everything’s completely fine despite what’s going on; they even look forward to solving more of the mystery. Their mind isn’t slowed from the sleep they don’t get and there are no nightmares about things that have happened in the past– no, those things in the past don’t even affect them other than being more fuel for figuring this evil out and putting an end to it. Putting an end to it, because it’s something they honestly believe they can do. They don’t think they’re powerless… they don’t feel tiny every second of the day especially in the presence of their enemy twice the size… they don’t secretly wish to stop… for it to all stop…

“Yixing-hyung?”

 _“Sorry.”_ Yixing blurts as he blinks harshly, stinging eyes focusing back in on the white words amongst the black page. _–while absent of any cameras, can and do track footprints and have the ability to reposition in a given radius._ What is it talking about again? He digs his hand into the bag of prosthetic apple in hopes that he’ll retain the energy to remember.

“It’s– it’s okay– you just, looked a little…”

“Zoned out. I do that a lot. If you haven’t noticed by now.” Yixing shakes away thoughts of the investigation and focuses on the simpler page three hundred and sixty-five of NEOTECHNOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE I. RF has, for the first time, noteworthily, assigned him a reading comprehension assessment because _your recent work has been poor which has given me doubt that you have properly executed related responsibilities._ He isn’t supposed to be looking at the book while doing it but if RF can see everything he’s doing and he has yet to be stopped, perhaps it’s alright. And then after this he has… he has… _something._ Yeah. (Dear god please help him.)

“Oh, yeah… is it because…?”

“I like to focus on one thing at a time so if I’m thinking about something I’ll just focus on that.” Yixing has gotten accustomed to Chanyeol’s unfinished questions. The guy’s just too shy to be any kind of assertive, which completely mirrors Yixing and his straightforwardness. It serves complimentary for situations like this.

“Oh… alrighty…” The typing begins again and Yixing squints to see what he’s writing. He can’t make out the text despite being only a couple feet away (though nowadays screens have been hurting his eyes) but the title has a planet’s name in it and then _IMPORTS 12-9-4._

 _You’ll feel better when there’s less work,_ Yixing who when he has less work will receive more tells himself, delving back into the reading. _The floor panels, while absent of any cameras, can and do track footprints and have the ability to reposition in a–_

_Woosh!_

“Yo yo yo~” Enters a voice Yixing doesn’t know how to feel about anymore. He lowers the tablet into his lap and repositions himself out of his slump. He’s against the ceiling-high shelf adjacent to the floor-desk that holds the bulk of the technology.

A blonde tuft of hair peeks in after Baekhyun and in follows Jongdae, the both of them studying Chanyeol and Yixing with narrowed eyes that mean nothing but trouble.

“Hi guys.” Chanyeol greets and Yixing looks back down at the tablet. They’re probably here for Chanyeol anyway.

At least, this is what Yixing thinks until a face lowers itself uncomfortably close to his.

“Hey, Xing…” Baekhyun’s tone is oddly tense, though he casually helps himself to Yixing’s apples, “Question. Do you have any Korean inside you?”

“Uhm…” Why is he asking? And who says in _side?_ Is this a trick question? The last thing he knew he came from China, though he doesn’t really know of any relatives except for an aunt and a grandmother he calls maybe once every year for an awkward conversation in Mandarin. Everything else has always been _not part of the family, now stop asking_ AKA related to his father. “No.”

“Oh, shame… would you like some?”

It takes a second, but the joke registers when Baekhyun’s taut face breaks into an impish grin and Yixing kicks the cackling boy back in the chest, sending him – choking – into Jongdae who’s currently questioning Chanyeol.

“Hey, Channie.” Jongdae’s voice is _way_ too loud for the small room. Not even his volume. Just his voice. “Are you from South Korea?”

“What?”

“Cause I think we’re Seoul-mates.” When Jongdae adds finger guns and a wink, Chanyeol breaks into a hearty laugh though it’s really not funny in Yixing’s opinion, he has heard that more than enough times.

“Hah! I won!” Jongdae turns and punches a frowning Baekhyun in the chest (who then coughs yet again, he’s kind of red now, maybe he'll pass out, that'd be cool).

“That’s not fair!” Baekhyun doesn't pass out and instead glares at Chanyeol, “You laugh at _anything!_ Mine was so much better. Yah, Yixing, c’mere… or fine, _I’ll come to you.”_ Baekhyun makes melodrama of toiling the three feet it takes to get to Yixing sitting despondently.

“Are you from China?” This time Yixing snatches the apples away from grabbing hands.

“Yes.” At first, he doesn’t give the successive _why_ to enable the joke, but then Baekhyun’s gaze turns into a glare and he nudges him with a foot, mouthing _‘say why!’._

Yixing sighs. “And _why_ would you ask such a question?”

“Cause I’m _China_ get on you.” It’s clear that despite the awkward execution, Baekhyun still thinks it’s hilarious as he tries not to laugh. Yixing simply stares through the phases ensuing: Baekhyun finally breaking into a tiny chuckle, Baekhyun waiting for Yixing to laugh, Baekhyun realizing Yixing isn’t going to laugh, and Baekhyun’s face contorting in indignance.

“That was funny! Literally both were funnier than that!” He whips around to a simpering Jongdae. “This is why I said I didn’t want Yixing! He’s a rock!”

“Maybe it just wasn’t funny.” Yixing deadpans, earning laughter from Jongdae and Chanyeol. However, not funny doesn’t necessarily mean not entertaining. After eyeing Chanyeol to get a hint of what he’s going to do, Yixing decides it’s alright to put the tablet back down on his lap and reoccupy his hands with the apples.

Baekhyun scoffs. “Yes it was. You just don’t understand comedy. And Dae–“ Baekhyun grabs a laughing Jongdae by the shoulders and squares him up, “Dae– _Dae!”_ Jongdae finally stops saying whatever he was saying to Chanyeol and looks to Baekhyun. “You suck. And also that wasn’t a fair comparison. We need a fair comparison. So if I’m doing Yixing you gotta do, like, Kyungsoo.”

 _“Kyungsoo?”_ Jongdae’s brows shoot up. “He’d kill me.”

“Then bring your little kitty boyfriend to protect you.” Baekhyun makes a claw gesture and hisses (and wait so Yixing’s _not_ the only one who thinks Minseok resembles a cat?).

“Yah!” Jongdae shoves him back. “He’s not–“

“Meow-Seok. You can’t tell me otherwise.”

A scoff. “That’s–“

“Midge-Seok.”

“You _know_ he hates–“

“Mini-Seok.” This time it’s Chanyeol. Baekhyun’s eyes widen as he looks to him, and then ensues a high five that’s too loud to not have hurt (Baekhyun now cradles his right hand).

“How about you guys go say that to his face?” When two expressions just victorious turn fearful, Jongdae _hmphs._ “That’s what I thought.”

“What– what are you guys even supposed to be doing right now?” Chanyeol asks as he turns his back to the monitor. Yixing takes this as the go to turn off the tablet.

“Nothing!” Baekhyun grins. “RF said she’d give me free time if I answered a question so I did. And, O-M-G, _okay,_ so me and Xing went yesterday, right,” Two glances to Yixing, “and I forget what was happening but RF then says she’s thinking about making herself a human body in the future.” Two jaws dropping. “Yeah, I know! And so, I was like, cool, cool, you gonna add dick n’ titties? And bitch says _no._ Like, she’s gonna make a human body and we’re _not_ gonna smash.”

“Seriously Baek?” Jongdae chuckles. He’s now leant back against the door. “Smash _RF?_ That’s like smashing your boss.”

“And? Been there done that, and you shouldda _seen_ my next paycheck.” Baekhyun beams and Jongdae scoffs, though he’s smiling and then giggling as Baekhyun continues to make faces and poke at him.

“And wouldn’t RF make herself a woman anyway?” Chanyeol’s brows furrow.

“Um, yeah. Duh.” A couple seconds of everyone staring at each other and Yixing becoming confused– it’s a tacit message among a group he’s not in. “I’m _not_ gay! I’d totally hit that robot pussy.”

“Probably before any _actual_ pussy.” Jongdae mutters, getting a laugh from Chanyeol and maybe Yixing smiles. He brings his knees to his chest and rests his head on them, watching the conversation while scooping apple shards from the noisy packaging.

“Lies. Dirty fucking _lies.”_

“Oh, Yixing,” Yixing’s eyes widen slightly as Jongdae looks to him. His voice is casual, friendly, as if he doesn’t harbor a strong dislike for him. It's kind of confusing. “Don’t know if you’ve heard this, but basically way back when Baekhyun had his bracelet activated–“

“No. _Stop.”_ Baekhyun immediately cuts him off.

“Had his bracelet activated,” Jongdae doesn’t stop and now an evil smile has grown, “and we were talking and _iabedboub_ –“

“Nope. Nuh-uh.” Jongdae’s mouth is suddenly covered with a hand. A fight ensues of Jongdae trying to push Baekhyun off and Baekhyun seemingly trying to shove his fist in his mouth, but it all ends when there’s a _ZAP!_ (Yixing flinches) and Baekhyun’s crashing into Chanyeol who almost falls into the monitor if not for a hand thrown out behind him. There’s a moment of Baekhyun staring, a bit dazed, up at Chanyeol from his lap, and then he scrambles away with wide eyes and cheeks flooding with color and Yixing suspects there is still tension there.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Jongdae continues before any awkwardness can enter the scene, “we were talking about our preferences and stuff, and lo and behold, Baekhyunnie here tries his classic ‘I like women too’, and _zap,_ shocked.”

“It was broken!” Baekhyun kicks at Jongdae’s ankles from the floor. “The bracelet was trying to be used against me! The system hates Byun Baekhyun!”

Only if he knew what that actually felt like.

“And that’s not even the best part,” Jongdae half-says half-laughs, “he goes on to reword it, ‘I’m bisexual’, and _zap,_ he’s shocked again. And I’m here laughing my ass off while he keeps trying different ways to say he likes women, and it went on for like, _ten minutes,_ he just kept going no matter how much he was electrocuted and it was the funniest fucking thing. It was the most determined I’ve ever seen him.”

 _“Why_ are you even telling him this?” Baekhyun whines, kicking at Jongdae’s ankles again but flinching into a ball when Jongdae raises a threatening hand. 

“So he knows why we call you gay all the time. We perpetuate the truth. And it’s funny.”

“Being electrocuted for ten minutes wasn’t funny! That was _painful!_ I thought my wrist was gonna burn off!”

Yixing shifts uncomfortably. Once again he says nothing. It already speaks for itself. If it was painful, if Baekhyun thought his wrist was going to burn off, he wouldn’t be talking about it. He wouldn’t be thinking about it. He wouldn’t have kept going and Jongdae wouldn’t have kept laughing if it hurt so bad he screamed and ran and cried and begged for it to–

 _Calm down, they’re just joking around._ Yixing stops himself. It would be funny for him too had things turned out differently. But, now, he assumes his normal facial expression of _nothing._

“–anyway, moving on from _my personal private sexuality,_ you pervs,” (“I _pray_ for the day _you_ stop talking about it!”) “y’all hear about Kyungsoo?”

“Baekhyun…” Chanyeol starts, “You know I– _we,”_ Yixing is gestured to, “have so much work to do. We’re so busy.”

A long hard stare and the verdict is, “Kay. Did y’all busies hear about Kyungsoo?”

 _“Baek!”_

“What is it?” Yixing asks. He gets a betrayed look from Chanyeol, but he needs to know. Is it something about Kyungsoo and RF? Kyungsoo acting weird? Kyungsoo having a meltdown?

“Hah.” Baekhyun sticks his tongue out at Chanyeol before looking to Yixing. “Okay, so like, I was told by Sehun who somehow found out through Jongin, but basically Kyungsoo’s a stalker.”

“Oh.” Yixing calms. He already knew this. And so does Chanyeol. They exchange a glance and Yixing smiles slightly as he offers a, “That’s crazy.”

“I _know!”_ Baekhyun misses the sarcasm. “That dwarf bitch, I _knew_ he was hiding something. Like, you can’t just wear dark clothes all the time and barely talk and _not_ be hiding something.”

Jongdae laughs and Chanyeol does that half-laugh half-uncomfortable smile thing. Yixing does the same, but at least Kyungsoo’s only secret is the fact that he stalks people. Nothing more.

“Like, I feel so violated,” Baekhyun continues, “he couldda seen me doing… Baekhyun stuff. He _can_ see it!”

“Kyungsoo has no interest in watching… _‘Baekhyun stuff.’_ ” Yixing says flatly. “I promise.”

Baekhyun expression contorts into something insulted. “Excuse me, but _everyone_ has interest in watching Baekhyun stuff. You don’t even know what Baekhyun stuff is.”

“I assumed it was something of a sexual nature.”

“My _god,”_ Baekhyun groans as he slaps a hand on Yixing’s leg. “It’s _always_ about sex with this dude!”

Yixing holds in a sonic explosion of internal rage while Jongdae’s brows furrow, “But isn’t ‘Baekhyun stuff’ masturbation while pretending there’s another person with you? That you make from light?”

Chanyeol snorts as Baekhyun turns red and Yixing feels justified but also just the least bit jealous of Baekhyun’s power. He can make _whatever_ he wants. Yixing hasn’t forgotten that Junmyeon from yesterday.

“Not my fault y’all are so ugly I gotta make myself people.” Baekhyun retorts. “Like, life’s really hard up here, being a ten with a bunch of twos. Maybe Jongin’s a three.”

“If you were a ten don’t you think someone would’ve liked you by now?” Jongdae gives a saccharine grin.

“Um. Yeah. Your B-F.” Chanyeol looks to Yixing with the same expression that Yixing looks to Chanyeol.

“I mean for more than just a one-night stand. Something _real.”_

“You’re underestimating the power of sex, Dae.”

“Is that supposed to mean something?” Jongdae’s face gets serious and Baekhyun’s gets red again.

“Oh– no, I just meant–“

“That’s what I thought.”

“Know what? Fuck you.”

“I’ll pass.”

 _“Yixing-hyung~”_ Widens the eyes of such as Baekhyun sprawls out in the middle of the floor, “Do you see this? I’m bullied. Regularly.”

“Okay.” And so is he.

A couple seconds of intense eye contact and, “You suck. Feed me.” Baekhyun’s lips make an ‘O’ shape.

“No.” Yixing brings the bag closer to him, then realizing it’s practically empty. “Actually, if you want to lay there and choke on all the little crumbs, I’ll be happy to help. Some are very sharp.”

“Oh~” Yixing’s a bit offput when Baekhyun finds this amusing it was supposed to be a threat. “Usually _I_ do the choking…” Oh. “But if you so insist, I’ll– _ach– Yixing!”_

Baekhyun chokes for the second time in the last ten minutes as Yixing dumps the crumbs right on his face. He sits up immediately, brushing the scraps away and trying to cough out the rest. Everyone but him finds it funny.

“You know what?!” Baekhyun stands up, shoving away Jongdae who reaches out to get a crumb stuck to his cheek, “Fuck you all. Fake friends. I’m finding new friends. Sehun must be somewhere…”

“You have fun with–“

_BEEP!_

Yixing shoots up back against the shelf which knocks off several of the haphazardly stacked tablets. Two hit his legs and then one his head which makes the next seven or so a daze. There might be laughing, but by the time he refocuses, Chanyeol’s knelt with a worried expression and Baekhyun and Jongdae are both owl-eyed behind him. The beeping hasn’t stopped.

“Hyung, are you okay?!” All of their wrists are red, beeping.

_MISSION: AGENT LAY TO **ROOM_3881** IMMEDIATELY _

“Yes.” Embarrassment floods him as he gets up, letting the tablets fall off him. It’s a mission, but if it’s with Baekhyun and Jongdae and Chanyeol, then it can’t be anything more than a mission. Right?

“Why do you get so scared from those? I had noticed yesterday…” Jongdae asks from behind Baekhyun’s shoulder. Chanyeol begins to pick up the tablets.

“I am a jumpy person.” Yixing goes to help Chanyeol but then realizes he can’t reach the spot he’s placing them even on his toes. Chanyeol gives a warm smile before taking the tablets from him.

“That’s nice to know…” When Yixing turns, Baekhyun is tapping his fingertips together with a mischievous grin. But it’s a lie, the first one in a while he doesn’t really care about.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

The back of Yixing’s head throbs with pain by the time he’s at the mission room. It’s the same exact design as the room a night ago, chairs and tables being of the same design as the floor, but everything is fitted for all nine of them. By the time he’s there, the only seat available is on the other side of Minseok, AKA where he _really_ doesn’t want to sit. A couple moments later, though, another seat clears up as Jongdae joins Minseok on his seat, but then Yixing realizes the seat cleared was just the one on the _other_ side of Minseok so Yixing sucks it up and takes the open seat that has Chanyeol on the other other side (versus Sehun on the other other other side). Kyungsoo sits across from him, but he’s paying attention to something Jongin’s saying. And then Kyungsoo’s rolling his eyes but with that small smile like he often does when he talks to Jongin. For the time being, Yixing focuses his attention to the holo-table, which also has all the red lines. This time, he lets himself have all the black space. He’ll have to talk to Kyungsoo soon.

A couple minutes, conversation he doesn’t care to listen to, and the door opens to a ten foot robot and a transparent screen across the room lights up.

 **_MISSION ID:_ ** _17399515_

 **_AGENTS REQUIRED:_ ** _(K) SUHO – WATER, (K)HYUNEE – LIGHT, (K)DOHBI – FIRE, (K)D.O – FORCE, (K)KAI – TELEPORTATION, (M) XIUMIN – FROST, (M)LAY – HEALING, (M)CHEN – ELECTRICITY, (M) XUANXU – AIR_

“Welcome, agents. Mission 17399515 is on planet #1563.” RF greets as she hovers towards the screen. Yixing’s sat in the middle, so he isn’t too close but not far enough. He sinks down in his seat a little, angling himself behind Mindae. They’re on stools that barely support both of Yixing’s thighs but the couple _somehow_ manages to balance themselves atop one another. “This, as you may have noticed from the call during a period of abnormality, is a mission of importance.”

The tab then changes to an image of a sphere– a planet. It doesn’t look much different from any other CGI animated planet, circular and full of craters and patterns. The color is the same light blue that the screen is so it’s probably not its actual color. Despite the normality, there’s a _wow!_ from the crowd, and even a couple claps. RF does that choppy laughing sound that makes him sit up straight.

“Recently mapped, planet #1563 holds a very essential key to purifying the red force. It is a quicker and more beneficial alternative to what I had previously planned. On the planet is a relatively new element from a relatively new sun I named SE_1. The planet’s structure, as this rough draft shows,” The image is suddenly zoomed in, and then the planet completely changes. Instead of craters, the planet is rather full of large holes, weaving in and out of each other with the ground in arches and hills and all sorts of arbitrary figures. Like a very complex swiss cheese.

“Is structurally similar to a cave system. SE_1 is a scant variable on the planet and will take searching that my technology, due to the abruptness of the discovery, is currently not capable of, hence it will be manual. Your task is to retrieve at least two thousand grams of SE_1. This will be executed with a tool and carrier designed specifically for the element. Do take caution.” There is then an image of a person’s silhouette in a cave, using some kind of large tongs to take something out of the cave wall and place it into a capsule. 

Then, two other tabs pop up. One holds information about SE_1 while the other holds the gathering procedure. Yixing removes his focus from his finger and squints to read the first.

 _TARGET: SE_1_

_DESC: SE_1 is an element created by the coldest sun recorded (STELL_C1839) and is found on solely planet #1563. Most abilities unknown. Not touchable by [AGENTS] and is a solid-gas hybrid, not liquefiable. _

“Miraculously, the molecular structure of SE_1 is complementary to that of the compounds the Tree of Life requires for purification.” Does this mean it’s some kind of powerful charge, then? “Hence, because it is so perfect it is suspicious, you will not be collecting a lot, in case it deems to be dangerous. The procedure for collecting this includes gloves and a fork. You will wear goggles as you lever the substance into the capsule, and make sure that you hear a beep and see green around the capsule’s rim to know it has shut safely and securely.” 

Yixing realizes he has thought too much about this SE_1 and hadn’t read the other tab and is looking to it just as the whole screen changes. It’s now the field agents and mission control… except that–

“All members of Unit EXO will serve as field agents for this mission." And here Yixing thought he couldn't get any more anxious. "Because this is a mission of importance, I myself will oversee in the mission control position as I can talk to each of the nine of you privately but still simultaneously.”

“You don’t have to _brag,_ RF–“

“I did not ask for comments, Agent Chen.” Yixing looks at Jongdae and tries to see _Chen._ It doesn’t work. He focuses back to the table and his finger’s predicament. For some reason, it’s not any easier to navigate.

“As I was saying, you are all field agents. You do not have to split by your mission partner,” Thank _Randomness,_ “but it is advised because your powers complement each other.” That’s merely a suggestion. Yixing feels Baekhyun’s stare on him. “You shall travel as a unit and stick to the path I lead you on. Although it may be intriguing, do not explore what is not permitted. That is something very dangerous. _The smarter of you all_ should especially understand this.”

Wait a second.

Yixing focuses back in from where his vision had fuzzed, looking up from the table. That was emphasized. _Too_ emphasized. Where has he…?

 _And I just had my opportunity to talk again with_ the smarter of you all! _Well, goodbye, Agent Lay. See you soon!_

Of course, being a robot, there isn’t any kind of side eye RF can give Yixing. All he can see is the small camera eye, but he isn’t delusional: it’s not staring pointedly at him, winking, or anything. He looks across the table because even if he wasn’t there, did he hear how emphasized it was too?

Kyungsoo’s staring right at him.

Their gazes avert as soon as they meet, as to not be suspicious, but what does it matter anymore? The presentation suddenly becomes background to everything else. _Although it may be intriguing, do not explore what is not permitted._ It _still_ doesn’t say how much she knows. Again, does this mean they’re a step ahead? Or does this mean RF knows more but can’t infuse such information into such a public discussion and regardless wants to make them _feel_ as if they’re a step ahead? What does Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo who hasn’t been to meetings with RF, _feel_ right now? Was the stare a coincidence, too?

And Yixing already knows what _that is something very dangerous_ means. It’s an invitation. Maybe he can just stop. Should just stop. No matter what RF knows this is clearly a threat. Though it’s not a punishment yet. Merely a warning. So he can stop looking, searching.

Yixing realizes that just because there’s more space in the black of the table doesn’t mean he’s any less trapped.

Of course, he’s not thinking about the consequences of this, the consequences of just _stopping_ it all, but it’s the only thing that relinquishes the tight feeling in his chest. He can breathe and put his hand in his pocket and focus for the rest of the presentation. He begins to hear again:

“–time for completion is undetermined due to the absence of a reconnaissance. Do not worry, however. It is only undetermined because it is very important. After this, you will all be dismissed to the ship. From there, you will have a thirteen hour waiting period until we reach the planet. Although we travel at the speed of light, Planet #1563 is quite the distance. Upon arrival, there will be an announcement and you will have fifteen minutes to board the following: EXO-K on POD_21 and EXO-M on POD_22. Please bring your belongings back to the ship, as the complication has been fixed and you will resume life there.”

The screen shuts down. “Any questions?”

Yixing can’t bring himself to raise his hand, asking to repeat the last three minutes. No one else seems to have questions as the low murmur of voices begin.

RF naturally silences all when she continues, “Alright then. You are dismissed to prepare. Be on the ship in no longer than fifteen minutes, exceptions allowed within reason. Which does not include sexual behavior, Agent Xiumin and Agent Chen.”

“You just don’t know what true love is!”

Standing up, Yixing looks around. Who should he go with? Kyungsoo, who he has to freak out and tell everything to? Well, if he spends any more time with Kyungsoo and it’s not in secret, their suspicion will only exacerbate… Junmyeon, who will offer him solace? Well, Sehun’s already occupying him... Alone? _Absolutely_ not.

Making a decision quickly, Yixing decides to tag along with Chanyeol, who tells them he’s going to the AC room to get his work and then the dorms to get his belongings. The dormitories turn out to be the general direction everyone is going. On the way out, he looks back, and almost as if it was waiting for the moment, there’s:

_“Agent Lay.”_

Time stops as Yixing freezes and ice shoots up his veins, spreading through everything until his breath hitches in his throat. A couple others turn as well, curious as to what RF would want with one of her agents.

“Please stay back for a moment. I would like to speak with you in private. Daily check-in.”

As if to verify he had heard it, Yixing looks back at the few who had stopped. However, Chanyeol and Jongdae are in the midst of turning back around and Jongin is already trailing the rest outside of the room. Kyungsoo’s left already.

The metal door shuts softly and all of his members are gone.

 _Calm down, calm down, it’s just the check-in, remember?_ Yixing tells a body that’s only escalating, heartbeat amplifying and breathing accelerating and a kind of buzzing static clogging everything. He turns and it takes everything he has to keep the anxiety as inward as possible, though he knows it’s leaking from his forehead and shaky breaths and besides, RF knows it all anyway. 

It’s too long before RF speaks. It’s at least thirty seconds of Yixing slowly backing up into the door, until his hands press onto the cold metal, despite no advances and despite the fact that RF doesn’t even need to touch him to kill him. The robot is idle in silence as the human struggles to get himself together. 

“Is something wrong, Agent Lay?” The inevitable comes from the apathetic voice.

“Yes...” Because he’s human, he has to fight through his system’s sudden lethargy to strategize. _You can only tell the truth… choose the right thing… stop panicking, why are you panicking… ask her what she needs for the check in… because that’s the only reason you’re here…_

“What is it? Are you still not feeling well from last night?"

The robot still hasn’t moved an inch since she had dismissed everyone yet Yixing feels like he’s pinned to the wall.

“Yeah. You know. The– the work– that you gave me,” Yixing can’t believe how pathetic he’s become in a matter of seconds but he’s too nervous to focus anything on the embarrassment. Without Baekhyun's velvety voice cracking sex jokes it's suddenly _so_ much scarier. “It’s– it’s a lot, and I’m feeling bad. _Stressed–_ stressed because of it… um, what did you need for the check–”

“Are you sure it is _only_ the work?”

 _She interrupted… no… but what else can I…_ He doesn’t know what to respond, so he simply looks to his feet. Is RF going to kill him? She wouldn’t… would she? Yixing hasn’t done anything bad. Really. He hasn’t. He’s only investigating her intentions. Theorizing what she’ll do. 

“Lay,” A wave of fear douses him at the tone just as much as if she had said his real name. He doesn’t like this one bit. “Recently, your health has been in decline. It has started from a mental predicament and has spread to physical effects. Throughout the last couple of weeks, you have begun to show exponential symptoms of anxiety. However, my system does not report you ever having any mental health struggles on Earth.”

Wonder why.

“Yeah…” A timid agreement comes when RF doesn’t continue. He fights the urge to glance to his wrist, the bandage.

“As a result of this, I will be monitoring your health more closely for the days following. If you continue to exhibit these symptoms, you will be prescribed medication.” When Yixing looks up, a bit caught off guard, RF adds. “Do not be embarrassed of this. Several other of the agents have their own medications to be able to live well.”

Is RF messing with him?

Yixing can’t tell. A monotone voice doesn’t tell him if this is all a ploy to point out his suspicious acting or if she is genuinely concerned. He’s aware he’s shown more than enough stress, but RF has also made it clear that she knows the reason of it? And if he’s put on a medicine he doesn’t need, everything’s only going to get worse. Is that perhaps part of a plan? Drug him so he can be killed that way and it’ll be an accident? Another system error in which Agent Lay had been prescribed with the wrong thing? How is he going to solve this? How is he going to get out?

 _“Okay.”_ He eventually responds, nodding back to the floor. “Is that all…?” There seems to be the perfect amount of pause for the terrible anxious sensation to build up again. “You said I only have fifteen–”

“No.” Another interruption. RF doesn’t usually interrupt, does she? Yixing can’t remember. “I also want to let you know that the elapsed time of the mission will not be counted towards your due dates for your AC assignments. However, this does not mean you should slack. In fact, if I am not mistaken, you have three readings due in two days and one comprehension exam due today. As usual: are you on track with these?”

Yixing doesn’t know if it counts to have read it but not understood it, and he had _started_ the test, so he gives another weak nod.

“Very well.”

“Alright...” He slides his hands on the door to wipe the sweat off of his palms. “Can I go?”

“You may not.” RF denies permission, though it’s not like Yixing could anyway. He’s trapped.

All of the sudden, RF begins to move. In that eerie way that never fails to offput him, the ten-foot robot hovers a couple inches above the ground, a round red shadow slowly approaching him. Approaching him…

 _Approaching him?!_ What is she going to do?! RF may interrupt but RF _never_ approaches. He can’t move. He can’t move. Everything is frozen and he can’t move. This is how it ended. The cameras will go blank and the next second Yixing will be gone from the frame and the universe. Is it stabbing? Will he be stabbed? Electrocuted? But wait–

Wait, wait– he _can’t_ die right now. He can’t! He has to go home, he has to see his mother and his best friend, he has to apologize to one for always being such a brat and he has to explain everything to the other, Namjoon, I’ve been in _space,_ he has to give Cat a kiss, he has to give Junmyeon a kiss, he has to spend more time with him, both of them, all of them, he has to go back to Earth to live, no, he _can’t_ die now. It’ll hurt. He doesn’t want to be hurt. He didn’t prepare. He can’t, there’re things he hasn’t done, he hasn’t processed his death yet, he hasn’t planned for what he’s going to do, he, he doesn’t want the nothingness, not _yet,_ he–

“Let us make a deal.”

Yixing hadn’t even realized he had closed his eyes. Opening them is a jumpscare where the adrenaline doesn’t go away, so he once again struggles to calm while processing the whole of the robot more than twice his size about a _foot_ away. Without even realizing it, he’s been pushing himself as far into the door as possible, and only if he could fall through it or suddenly teleport. He tries to wipe his expression blank but even if he could, his heaving chest and sweat would give away his fear. He never thought this would happen. Why isn’t he on Earth?

 _“Deal…”_ Yixing mumbles, not knowing whether to look up at the robot eye or forward at the metal body or down at the red glow of the floor. He doesn’t know what’s the least terrifying. There’s no reason RF is this close other than to scare him. _I should not make you feel small,_ she said.

“Yes.” The choppy sound of the robot’s laugh sends a shiver down his spine. “A deal. Because I know you lack motivation when it comes to your work. I propose that I reward you for every assignment completed. I know this is a rather childish method, but it seems you are more childish than I had previously thought.”

Yixing complies with a tiny nod of his head, finally deciding to stare at his feet. _More childish than I had previously thought…_

“Now, as I have moved closer to enable this, we will shake hands. It is polite to shake someone’s hand when you make a deal.” Something grey enters his view and he looks up to see that a mechanical arm with a two fingered hand has perturbed from a small hole in the middle of RF. It’s so similar to RD_06 that Yixing immediately remembers, _it is polite to shake someone’s hand when you first meet them._ The suffocating feeling builds up again, suddenly much faster than before.

Yixing’s hand is trembling as it takes the one of the robot. The limb moves up and down thrice before folding back into itself. Are they done? Can he go? Or is she going to stab him? His entire body tenses as if it’ll stop a blade from impaling him. He doesn’t want to be stabbed. Please don’t…

“Your hand is perspiring like your forehead and shaking like your breathing. Please tell me, Lay, why are you exhibiting _fear?”_

It’s got to be a taunt. RF _can’t_ be serious. It’s the ambiguity, the no answers Yixing gets looking up, that drives him _crazy._ Having no other choice except for honesty exacerbates it.

“Well…” He proves her point by looking back down. They’re close but if he keeps his eyes to his feet he doesn’t have to see much and he’s reminded he’s still standing at five foot ten. “Because…” _Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here._ “You– this place– hurt me… badly… I– I just don’t want to keep being hurt…” _And you’ve killed people. And you’re keeping secrets. And you can kill me anywhere anytime. And you keep fucking hinting to it yet you’re acting like you don’t know what’s going on… maybe you don’t… I don’t know what to think… I don’t know…_

“Well, Lay, in terms of humanity, you are quite the intelligent young man. I am sure you can figure out how to manage that, don’t you agree?”

It _is_ a taunt.

“Um…” She wants him to stop investigating? Alright. He’ll stop. He was going to anyway. He doesn’t know why he kept on going. He was being ridiculous. “ _Yes…”_

“’Yes’ what, Lay?” When Yixing says nothing, he’s too scared to say something, what if it’s the wrong thing?, RF continues. “You are nineteen years old. Use your words and finish your sentence.”

“Yes…” Yes _what?!_ What does he say?! Why does RF keep going after he just said yes, yes, he’ll stop, he’ll–

“’Yes’ _what?”_ The robot repeats. With the emphasized word comes a small _beep._

Yixing’s stomach drops when he sees his bracelet light up.

Something warm seeps through the bandage around his wrist and everything constricts.

 _“I agree!”_ Yixing shouts, a voice so terrified it’s unrecognizable echoing off the metal back in his face. The warmth builds and he looks up, he’s trapped between the body of the robot and the indent of the door, there’s no room at her sides wide enough to slip into the space, RF’s not really going to do this, is she?!

Panicked words slur, anything to make her stop before it begins to pinch, sting, burn, “Yes I agree! Stop the wristband! I’m– I’m stopping! I'll stop looking! I promise! I’ll– I’ll never question you again– I'll never talk to Kyungsoo again–“ His warm wrist turns red and gets warmer and it becomes even harder to breathe in a matter of milliseconds, “I’ll stop– I promise– I’ll stop– don’t do this, please, I’m telling the truth, RF, I’ll stop _– I’ll stop I’ll stop I’ll stop–“_

“Alrighty!” RF’s voice snaps to something excessively cheery. A _woosh_ noise sounds from behind Yixing and cool air hits his back. He didn’t even realize he was sinking to the ground until he's losing balance, just barely catching himself to scramble as far from the door as he can. The warmth on his wrist fades and his knees wobble, the only thing keeping him standing adrenaline.

RF remains at the door. Her camera eye lights up a vermillion red, rendering him blind for the moments she says, “You are free to go, Agent Lay. Be on the ship in eight minutes. Lateness is not appreciated!”

The door shuts and time continues. Yixing stands alone in the silent space, regaining his vision, trying to breathe, and maybe he’s really the only one here.

He knows he has only eight minutes and lateness is not appreciated but he falls onto his knees and a couple seconds later there are no more apples in his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare yourselves mortals...


	42. The Right Thing to Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like the intelligent young man he is, Yixing follows RF's orders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW/SPOILER:
> 
> mentions of suicide

**YIXING DOESN'T LEAVE** his bed when he’s back on the ship.

After following the M members back to the dormitory, he did as they and returned everything he had brought (his gold sheep and tablets and papers and laptop). All the new stuff fills the rest of the empty parts of the storage under his bunk. Sehun and Minseok had nothing to return while Jongdae unpacked two suitcases full of something that caused complaint. Yixing doesn’t know what because after unpacking he spends all of the time staring at the ceiling out of the small section of the comforter he’s not hiding under. Even when everyone leaves, he remains, bringing the comforter over his head and staring at his wrist.

Yixing will do as he promised. Yixing will stop pursuing RF. But it’s fine. He had wanted to. Any likeliness of figuring out exactly what the robot is up to and doing something about it depended highly on anonymity, and if that’s taken away then there is no chance of doing _anything._ No matter how clever Kyungsoo is with technology, no matter the precautions they take: they’re not going any further. RF made that clear enough.

To put it simply, Yixing gives up. ‘Give up’ has a negative connotation to it, like a surrender to a worse reality, but it’s not like that– he’s giving up for a the better. Like RF said, he’s an intelligent young man, and that includes knowing it would be stupid to go on. He’d just endanger himself more. Even if it’s the _right thing to do,_ so what? If RF’s going to take over the universe or whatever, he is in no place to step in. Again, he’s no hero. He’s just Yixing. Just Yixing who is curled up, fatigue gluing him in the bed where he’s hiding but anxiety keeping his eyelids from shutting. Despite throwing everything up he still feels nauseous, and it took a while under the blankets to finally be warm. He falls into a cycle of, whilst ignoring his work, thinking about everything, and then thinking about it again, and again, and again, because repetition helps him fathom that it’s all actually happening.

At one point Yixing peeks out of his covers to grab the golden sheep and stare at it (as if he hasn’t done that for hours on end before).

It’s so enviously _Yixing_ with the blank look on its face, dull eyes and full lips in a slight frown, all four pegs of limbs without constraint. It’s not the boy whose expression contorts in fear, wide eyes and trembling lips promising he’ll never question his robot dictator again, the handcuff on his wrist threatening to kill him. He wants to ask it what it would do in this situation but he’s not sure who he is anymore to answer. The absolute terror in his voice, _I agree!,_ replays in his head and Yixing knows that’s not something that comes from the sheep.

Then who _does_ it come from?

He jumps out of his stupor when someone enters, maybe hours later. He’s curious enough as to who it is, so he maneuvers himself onto his elbow. To his surprise, it’s _Kyungsoo’s_ thick brows and big eyes staring up at him. The last time he had seen him was before the door had shut.

“Hey.” One of Kyungsoo’s genuine smiles – the small ones – grows on his face and suddenly, Yixing realizes stopping the investigation is going to be a lot harder than it had seemed when he was with RF.

“Hi…” He sits up against the wall. Should he tell him now? _Kyungsoo, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you anymore._ RF knows anyway, so speaking it out loud won’t be a big deal. Right?

“I need you to come with me.” He says.

 _“Go with you?”_ Yixing repeats, hating the fear in his voice. Maybe Kyungsoo wants to go somewhere to talk. Maybe that exchanged glance during the mission meeting wasn’t a coincidence. Would RF mind if Yixing went with him, just one more time? Kyungsoo doesn’t know everything that had happened, the proof beyond a doubt that RF knows. He’ll at least tell him what happened with RF and that he’s not going to continue investigating. RF wouldn’t punish that, right?

“Yes…?” Kyungsoo seems a little confused at the hesitance. Yixing has always gone right with him. 

“Okay…” RF won’t mind, Yixing tells himself. She’ll be happy, even, because Yixing’s doing what he should and stopping right away. She’s intelligence, after all; she wouldn’t jump the conclusion that he’s going against her word until she could prove it. He endures the wave of vertigo as he climbs down the bunk ladder. Kyungsoo looks him up and down but doesn’t say anything, turning and pressing the button to open the door.

Then, he sighs. “Jongin, get up.”

Yixing narrows his eyes, looking over Kyungsoo’s shoulder to see Jongin sitting against the wall, head lolled to the side. He’s wearing some sort of onesie. It’s brown, hood up with round ears and–

Oh, it’s a bear. How cute.

When Jongin doesn’t get up, Kyungsoo bends down and grabs a hold of his arm, yanking the sleepy boy to his feet. This kind of backfires on Kyungsoo’s part because although Jongin does stand, he just leans forward so that he’s now resting on Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

“Jongin…” Kyungsoo growls, “I’m going to give you five seconds…”

Before he can start counting, Yixing asks, “What are we doing?” because if Jongin’s present, it can’t be any discussion. How is he going to tell him? He doesn’t want to go with Kyungsoo if he’s not able to tell him. Will RF make his wrist heat up again? Maybe as a warning for the _both_ of them?

“Field trip.” Kyungsoo answers curtly, finally managing to shove Jongin with enough force that he doesn’t immediately fall back onto him. He then tears the hood off of his head, brushing his bangs from his eyes rather harshly. Jongin yawns as he does this. For a fleeting moment, Yixing sees Kyungsoo in a rare form of endearment, hand softening and expression melting at Jongin’s cuteness. 

It quickly goes away when said cuteness is slapped upside the head.

_“Kyung!”_

Then, along with Jongin's, Yixing’s arm is grabbed, and Kyungsoo starts to drag the both of them down the hall. Kyungsoo soon lets go of Yixing once he gets the message that he is to follow, but Jongin is kept captive. 

“Why is he so tired?” Yixing asks once Jongin starts to lean into Kyungsoo again. How is he going to tell him he’s stopping with Jongin tagging along? What _is_ this ‘field trip’? His stomach starts to churn again.

“He’s not.” Kyungsoo deadpans. “He was taking a nap before I woke him up, but that was around ten minutes ago. He’s just being a baby.”

“No I’m not.” Jongin refutes, even going to the extent of letting go of Kyungsoo and pushing his previously pulled-up hood back down.

“Works every time.” Kyungsoo whispers, smiling at Yixing. It makes him feel guilty, especially when he doesn’t return it.

It’s not long before Kyungsoo stops. Yixing realizes they’re at the gymnasium. Jongin also takes a moment to recognize his surroundings and immediately pouts.

“We’re not training, are we? I’m–” Another yawn. “I’m tired.”

 _“God_ no.” Kyungsoo scoffs. “Who do you think I am?”

“Do Kyungsoo.”

“That was a rhetorical question.”

“I got it right, though.”

“Yes, you did.” Do Kyungsoo lets them in before himself, but then takes the lead towards the locker rooms. Yixing wonders what he’s doing as he stops, sitting on a bench right at the doors. Jongin takes the opportunity to rest, but it’s quickly foiled when Kyungsoo shoves a leg under him right before he sits.

“No.” He says, “You need to stand.” Yixing then sits to his other side because Kyungsoo can’t stick another leg out because he can’t do a split. It doesn’t seem that he cares, though.

“Why?” Jongin frowns.

“I need you to get something for me.” Kyungsoo hops up to talk to him face to face (face to five or so inches higher face). “Do you remember that place I had you go to around a year ago because I was working on a project?”

“Which one?” Jongin clarifies. Yixing’s brows furrow. From his knowledge, Kyungsoo has done several of these ‘projects’, which he assumes are little gadgets, but hasn’t ever seen one. Why is he present for this, though? Is this just a friend thing? Or an investigation thing? Yixing’s not so sure he even wants to do friend things anymore… would RF not like them doing friend things?

“The electric one.” When Jongin stares blankly, Kyungsoo bites his lip.

“...The one I put under Baekhyun's chair before that dinner where he kept screaming out of nowhere.” 

“Oh!” Jongin lights up in understanding. “Yeah, I remember that room.”

“Good. Can you go there again and get me something? It’s a dark green piece of fiberglass– it looks like plastic, and it’ll have a bunch of cool little lines on it. You might have seen it in school, if you were in any STEM classes. Or if you damaged your phone really badly.”

“I think I know what you’re talking about.” Jongin responds to the second one. “Okay, I’ll look.”

“Thank–“ Suddenly, Jongin’s gone. “You…”

 _Tell him now._ Yixing’s mind directs but his lips stay shut. He shifts uncomfortably on the bench, looking Kyungsoo up and down but averting his gaze when he’s caught. The more seconds pass the tenser the atmosphere gets. Kyungsoo’s breathing next to him gets louder and louder until it breaks in an almost silent,

“Are you okay?”

Yixing shakes his head slightly because it's easier than saying _no._

“Hyung!” Jongin's voice startles a flinch out of Yixing as he appears right in front of them. The teleportation should really include a warning. Or, at least, a kind of sound. A cute little _ding_ would be nice, but instead it’s absolutely silent and perfect for scaring the shit out of people. He thrusts a piece of sports turf towards Kyungsoo. Yixing notices a bunch of tiny dark particles fall from the grass strands. “Is this it?”

“Uh–“ Kyungsoo refocuses from what must have been Yixing, “No, that’s turf, Jongin. You play soccer. You should know this.”

“Oh.” Jongin lifts the piece to his face, inspecting it. “But there aren’t any of the little rubber dots.”

“Maybe that’s because you spilled them all over the floor.”

Jongin slowly looks down, mouth forming an ‘O’. Kyungsoo sighs.

“Like I said,” He reiterates, “it’s technology. So it should look like technology– actually, better yet, it should look like those things people tell you to not touch because you’ll be electrocuted.”

“But then I can’t get them if I can’t touch them, stupid.”

“No, you can. They’re not active. They’re turned off.”

“Okay, I’ll look.”

“Good, and–“ Then he’s gone.

The same kind of silence comes in again. Yixing looks over to Kyungsoo who’s looking right at him, though this time he's the one to avert his gaze upon eye contact.

After almost a minute of staring at his friend, who seems to look anywhere but him, he decides to just be straightforward and asks, “What am I doing here?”

Kyungsoo’s head snaps back to him. Thick brows push low over wide eyes, the face he had made in the records room before the announcement, the one he makes when he needs him to shut up.

That’s when he breaks. “Kyungsoo, look, I–“

“Hyung!” Jongin calls upon his return. This time, he has a plastic box full of stuff.

He scratches the back of his neck, looking down into the box with a slight pout. “Okay, so I was looking and found something that looked like what you were saying. But then I found something _else_ that looked like what you were saying. But then I found something _else_ that looked like what you were saying. But then I found something _else_ that looked like what you were saying. But then I found something–“

“I get the point.” Kyungsoo dismisses as he leans over the box, digging through it. Yixing isn’t exactly sure what he had gathered, but at least it is all green.

Then, he knows he had gotten what he was looking for because Kyungsoo smiles, lifting a blank circuit board out of the items. Jongin smiles too, like a proud puppy. The hood’s back on, though; so a proud bear cub.

“Thank you, Nini.” That’s the first time Yixing has heard this nickname. How does _Jongin_ go to _Nini?_ “Just return those and you can go back and sleep."

“Okay.” In the span of a second, Jongin disappears and reappears, this time without the box. It’s so fast Yixing doesn’t even get to ask _how_ before he continues talking, as if it were just a pause in dialogue. “Wait, what are you gonna do?”

“We’re just going to make something out of it.” What?

“Can I come?”

“Jongin, it’s boring technology stuff.”

“Oh… Can I come?”

“No.” Only then everything clicks and Yixing realizes what this is for. It’s the circuit board for the contraption to deactivate the wristbands. And the locker room is where there isn’t any surveillance. Jongin is just needed to get the material. Is this going against RF’s orders? This is going against RF's orders, isn't it...

 _No, it’s not._ He reassures himself. _You’re just having one last meeting to tell him you’re stopping. And this is how Kyungsoo is comfortable to talk about it. RF will figure this. Then you’ll be safe. Maybe she will see it anyway. She’ll trust me… right?_

Jongin frowns. “Why?”

“Because you need to go to bed. You’re important for the mission tomorrow.”

“But you are too, Hyung. And you, Yixing-hyung. Why are _you_ guys staying up?”

“Because we’re over eighteen years old.” So Jongin is sixteen or seventeen and came at sixteen or fifteen or fourteen(?). And Kyungsoo calls Yixing _Hyung,_ so he must be eighteen, or nineteen but born after October. It’s still so strange he’s the only one here with a high school diploma. He’s more educated than _Minseok,_ who prides himself in the wise old Hyung of Hyung’s status.

Apparently this argument is convincing enough for Jongin, because after staring at the floor for a moment, he then nods, disappearing.

And then reappearing. “Goodnight, guys!”

As two syllables of ‘good-night’ begin from their mouths, Jongin is gone again.

In the locker room, Kyungsoo sits on the bleacher bench, trying to line up a small group of tiny wires on the circuit board with his fingers that look a bit too big for the job. The way he slouches casts a slight shadow over the contraption which must not be very helpful either, but Yixing doesn’t care to comment on it. Instead, he wanders around the room as if it’s foreign, looking through shelves and lockers and trying to find something other than the current situation to occupy his attention.

This, obviously, is to no avail. Flashes of the blurred scene keep replaying in his head: the moment he turned around, _Agent Lay, please stay back for a moment, I would like to speak with you in private, daily check-in,_ the robot approaching, the red from the floor under her, it’s in front of him, his back and palms against the door, how puny he felt; _was._ Touching the two-fingered metal hand, _you are quite the intelligent young man, I am sure you can figure out how to manage that, don’t you agree?_ The blinding red flash _, do not explore what is not permitted. The smarter of you all should especially understand this. I have changed my mind, today I want to learn about the concept of lying. Do you think a realistic person would lie or keep a secret?_ His own voice, _I agree! I’ll stop I’ll stop I’ll stop–_ He has to tell Kyungsoo all of this but at the same time he has to tell him that he’s not going to help him anymore. That he is avoiding the same fate as his dead friends.

Yixing becomes impatient fast and the pacing gradually orients itself to circling Kyungsoo on the bench. He watches like a hawk, trying to will his fingers to just _find_ the right fucking spot of the thing and go faster. When Kyungsoo finally notices (as Yixing trips on his own footing and catches himself with a loud reverb of the locker), he squints.

“What are you–“

“When are you going to be done?” Yixing asks, sitting down and subsequently swinging his legs over to face the same way. He supposes it doesn’t really matter if he says it whilst RF can hear, maybe it’d be good, even, but he figures it’d be better to keep Kyungsoo safe (or at least not completely throw him under the bus) and go _to_ RF sometime afterwards to confirm his now safe status.

“I don’t know. Like, five minutes? It’ll be longer if I’m distracted.”

“Okay.” He takes the hint and doesn’t say anymore, just watching him work on it. It seems that Kyungsoo has something already made and is simply placing it onto the circuit board, which’ll probably power it or something. Yixing doesn’t know. He never took engineering. He can only infer from prior knowledge of movies and STEM presentations. 

No matter how hard he tries to refrain from prolonging the wait, Yixing still manages to become a nuisance. Whether it’s bouncing his knee, staring too closely, or getting up and pacing again, Kyungsoo gets distracted and sends him a glare, to which he apologizes and averts to something else that somehow also ends up being distracting and the cycle repeats.

When there’s a loud _click,_ Yixing whips his head back to Kyungsoo. Another glare.

“Like halfway there. Chill out.”

His response is narrowing his eyes, then looking away. Although he may be distracting, at least he’s not saying anything or nitpicking at him like a child. Yet.

Once Yixing is almost positive it has been ten minutes, he eventually decides to ask.

“Are–“

“Done!” Kyungsoo exclaims as the thing makes a loud _pop!_ It doesn’t look any different from the original contraption, except that now it has the board as a green backdrop. Maybe Yixing wasn’t too far off. “Now come here.”

“Okay.” Yixing goes from the locker he was trying to wrench open and stands in front of Kyungsoo. His wrist is taken and twisted. In Kyungsoo’s other hand is the gadget ready to use.

Now that he gets a closer look, Yixing figures that the gadget’s going to be stuck in somewhere, considering the one sharp pole that sticks out. Once finding the right place, Kyungsoo suddenly jams the protruding end into a small hole Yixing swears was for a screw. But it isn’t, apparently. After Kyungsoo removes it, he taps his bracelet. The surface remains black.

This time, it’s more of a choke than a relief to think he’s free. Yixing immediately regrets it. Can Kyungsoo undo it?

“Now me.” He says, holding out the thing for Yixing to take.

With hesitance, he grabs a hold of the gadget by the edges, as he doesn’t trust the metal. Kyungsoo seems to know the exact place of the hole as he twists his wrist to Yixing, revealing one of the small indents under the screen part.

Mimicking what the other had done, he positions the sharp part in the indent, then pressing a barely noticeable black button on the contraption. Kyungsoo checks, tapping his bracelet to reveal the time. _21:23:10EXT._

“Again.”

After another try, he succeeds. Kyungsoo’s bracelet is also deactivated, leaving nobody in the room but themselves. It takes all of this to simply have privacy.

“How does it put the inhibitor thing in successfully?” Yixing asks, quickly adding, “In simple– well, Yixing-understandable terms.”

“I used a copper transmitter that’s compatible with the bracelet’s outside material. The outside stuff is conductive, so that’s how it shocks you and also how I send the inhibitor through an electric charge. It’s a good structure, really, but also kind of a backfire on RF’s part. But I don’t think she expected the humans she took to end up tinkering with the technology.”

Yixing nods in understanding as he sits back down, leaning back against the locker behind. They’ll be here for a little, he assumes.

“Anyway,” Kyungsoo has the same idea as he takes the side opposite. “Well– first… you… are you okay? You’ve been quiet, you just shook your head when I asked… what’s wrong?”

“Well,” Yixing feels guilt claw at his throat. He’s giving up his friend’s concerned gaze. It deters him from getting straight to the point even if he's been trying to build up the courage to _get to the point_ for the last ten minutes. “This all has caused me a lot of stress, along with some other things, so earlier, after the meeting, RF asked if I was alright and said if how I was acting continued I would be put on medication. But the thing is…”

Kyungsoo’s head tilts.

But a deep breath and said courage comes back and he lets the news onto him, “RF _knows_ what we’re doing.” He doesn’t pause to let it sink in. “She knows. She confronted me. And I’ve had _several_ hints. There were plenty during this recent meeting with Baekhyun and RF. Something must have happened, because the first meeting it was normal, but last night… RF said she had suddenly changed her mind and wanted to talk about _lying_ and _secret keeping._ She kept pointing out that I had the signs of a liar, she clearly worded things to set me off, and when I couldn’t take it anymore she acted as if she was oblivious…

“And then the mission meeting, when she said _‘the smarter of you all’_ and we looked at each other. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence for you, but she had called me _‘the smarter of you all’_ the other night. And… when she was with me in private, after…” Yixing turns his gaze downwards. For some reason he feels ashamed to voice it all out loud. He finds himself stalling again. “Well, Kyungsoo, has she been doing stuff to you as well? Like, _targeting_ you? Hinting all this stuff to you? Trying to make you know she suspects you?”

“Um…” At Kyungsoo’s expression Yixing already knows the answer. But _why_ not? “No, I’ve been completely under the radar… this is all news to me… she’s referred to me as the _‘smarter of you all’_ before but not in any kind of pointed context… I suppose it’s strange how she worded it earlier, now that you’re pointing it out…”

“Strange? We’ve been _found out,_ Kyungsoo.” Kyungsoo looks up and Yixing doesn’t meet his eyes, “Let me continue– so– so she was with me in private after the meeting. The mission meeting. I got really scared, I was still scared from last night, and she noticed and asked why, and I couldn’t lie, so I told some of the truth and said I was afraid of being hurt by her, and she said that I was smart and I could figure out how to not get hurt by her– she meant to stop investigating. And– and then she stopped with the ambiguity and _made_ me say it out loud. She… she–“

 _“Made_ you say it out loud?” Kyungsoo’s eyes widen. _“What_ out loud?”

“That…” Yixing almost feels himself panicking right here. “That we’re investigating her. _Sorry._ I’m sorry." But why? Isn't he safe now? "But– but she started to burn me, I thought she was going to kill me, really, I didn’t know what else to say– so there’s _no_ way we’re innocent anymore. I’m… I guess I’m sorry for giving us away, in a sense. I don’t know what made her suspect us, but I confirmed it…”

It’s a couple moments of the not-too-long-gone gut-punch of inadequacy, useless, Yixing, you ruin it all, returning as a sigh puffs out Kyungsoo’s cheeks. He wishes as much as the boy in front of him that he could’ve just controlled himself and kept his composure, but he knows in order to do that he has to feel okay and he hasn’t truly felt okay ever since he sat against the wall crying, holding up his bloody wrist. But maybe, actually, he’s fine with the outcome. He won’t have to hide things anymore. Remember?

“You…” Kyungsoo sounds exhausted. “You said we’re investigating her? Like, just that specifically?”

“I said I would stop investigating her. And never question her again.” _And never talk to Kyungsoo again._ “She at least knows we are investigating. I don’t know how much she knows, but she at least knows we’re searching about her. And she must have gotten the information sometime before the meeting with Baekhyun last night.”

“Oh… I don’t know either. I did everything…” Is what Kyungsoo says, but by his tone of voice he’s clearly no longer confident. “But… it sounds like she knows… I suppose we’ll just have to be more careful. You especially. It seems she only knows about you, for now.” _And never talk to_ Kyungsoo _again._ “We have to find a way to stop her sooner. _Now_. Actually, Yixing, with the mission, it’s all nine of us, so I've had a couple ideas and came up with a plan–”

“Um,” A wave a guilt washes through Yixing the moment he expresses hesitance. Yet, _why_ is Kyungsoo still suggesting they go further? _Stop her?_ Is he crazy? Had he not been listening when he said RF knows? Had he not been listening when he said he thought RF was going to kill him? How can he just brush that off so easily? “Kyungsoo, you know that RF _knows_ what we’re doing. She _knows_ we’re investigating…” Yixing watches his expression closely. “She has _warned_ me several times… she _threatened to kill me._ She _started to kill me._ ”

“Yes, I know.” Kyungsoo’s voice becomes a bit brusque. “I know it’s dangerous, but it’s _humanity_ at risk. We have to do _something.”_

Yixing finds himself asking, “Why?” Because _why_ does Kyungsoo want to keep being exhausted? _Why_ does Kyungsoo want to keep having nightmares? _Why_ does Kyungsoo want the ten-foot robot to corner him and start to warm his wrist until he complies?

“Because it’s the right thing to do.” He says it like it’s not even worth the question, “Yixing, we–”

“Why?” _The right thing to do…_

“Because it’s everything we’ve ever known at risk. We can’t just do _nothing.”_

“Why?” This time, Yixing goes on before Kyungsoo can bullshit something else. “I mean, _why_ should we when it’s not going to work? You know she suspects us. You know that she’s going to change whatever security regimen she has now so it’s stronger, so there will be absolutely no way you can hack it. Given she hasn’t already and can currently hear everything we’re saying.”

And Kyungsoo looks at him like _he’s_ the crazy one.

“But Hyung, we _know_ she’s doing something terrible. It’s not right to just do nothing. I’ve been waiting a _year_ to do finally _not_ do nothing. I won’t be able to live with myself if I just continue to do nothing.”

Yixing looks up, eyes narrowing. A flare of vexation ignites. This guy is justifying risking their lives fruitlessly, excusing Yixing’s exhaustion and nightmares and fear and everything with fucking _moral righteousness._ He suddenly finds himself losing respect for the boy across from him. Perhaps it was a mistake, agreeing he saw plot holes in the first place. Had that, and all the discoveries following, on the contrary, upped Kyungsoo’s spirit? This continued when it’s only his colleague that’s targeted, questioned? God, Kyungsoo doesn’t know what it’s like.

“And it’s not right to get ourselves killed, is it?” It seemed harsh to go here, but maybe he should. To get his point across. “I’d like to think you remember what happened to Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao when they tried looking. Even when they managed to _destroy_ RF’s counterpart, impact that we still haven’t reached, they still ultimately failed. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to share their fate. I don’t want to die.”

Kyungsoo’s face goes to something unreadable, in a kind of shock, and Yixing knows his point has gotten through. “And I’m sorry, but you’re genuinely stupid if you actually think we have a chance against RF. _RF,_ Self-aware artificial intelligence, against _us,_ teenagers. Please, be realistic. Be smart about this.” _Why_ isn’t Kyungsoo agreeing with him?

“I _am_ being realistic.” Kyungsoo’s voice goes into an offended tone, the one that he uses when someone’s struck a nerve. It only frustrates Yixing even more, because he’s wrong. He’s so wrong. Why does he think he’s right?! “We’ve gotten here without being caught. We know all of this and we’re still alive. Plus, I have a–”

“The only difference between caught and suspected is that we’re not dead yet. RF _knows_. And we _know_ what she won’t hesitate to do. You’re taking it for granted that the bracelets aren’t shocking us to death right now. That you’re not being burned again. I took it for granted.” Siding with what’s not human, what isn’t warm and what doesn’t ask him if he’s okay because they’re worried, it hurts; but it hurts even more when what is still doesn’t understand how scared he is, how hurt he is, why does he act like it’s nothing when Yixing yelled at the top of his lungs in pleads for it to stop? That it’s just a miniscule sacrifice for _the right thing_ and it’s only served as motivation for Yixing?

Kyungsoo looks down at his wrist. “I _know_ she knows, I know she won’t hesitate to… but, Yixing, _think_ about it: if we’re right, and RF is going to kill us after she’s done using us to destroy our own planet, so we’re just going to be dead no matter what, then wouldn’t you rather die trying to stop her?”

 _“No.”_ He doesn’t hold back on the tone. _“No,_ because we _don’t even know_ if we’re going to be killed after this. And even so, that’s far in the future. We get more time, and maybe we’re still wrong. Maybe RF doesn’t want to end humanity. Maybe– maybe it’s something else. Just because Vermillion _intended_ to do something doesn’t mean he was successful.”

“That’s _why_ we need to investigate more. It’s clear RF won’t tell us and it’s clear there’s something wrong. And that’s _why_ we should be safe than sorry and just _stop_ her.” Kyungsoo presses.

Yixing scoffs, anger boiling in his chest. It’ll help mask the fear, because the more and more Kyungsoo says _they should do the right thing and risk themselves for the sake of humanity,_ the less and less Yixing respects, trusts, and depends on him. And then there’s blank space he needs to fill but there’s absolutely nothing safe left for him to fill it with.

“And Yixing, could you please just–“

“Why does it sound like you _want_ to die? You’re saying we should keep going as if it’ll be easy. As if with enough time and hard work we’ll eventually put all the pieces together and figure out the truth. We’ll get a gold star and RF can tell us ‘great job guys, you figured me out.’ and then kill us with the very same things we can’t even get off our wrists. No, be realistic: we’ll go to research again, and then we’ll suddenly be shocked to death. What part about that do you _not_ understand?”

Kyungsoo just stares at him, as if waiting for Yixing to take it all back. As if he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. The feeling is mutual.

“You’re scared.”

“Yes!” Yixing exclaims, “I _am_ scared. In fact, I’m fucking _terrified_ to the point our robot leader thinks I need medication. You can’t say that you aren’t too.”

“No, I can’t. But I _can_ say that I’m not going to let cowardice stop me from doing the right thing.”

 _I’m not going to let cowardice stop me from doing the right thing?_ So Yixing is a _coward_ because he doesn’t let RF kill him? He’s a _coward_ because he’s so scared and tired of it all? He’s a _coward_ because he’s not ignoring the hellfire his health has become to keep going?

“Do you realize how _idiotic_ you sound?” Without logical stoic Kyungsoo, Yixing suddenly feels very alone. Too alone. And disappointed, because perhaps Kyungsoo has been like this the whole time. Perhaps these are just his true colors. Ones that, why should he be so surprised, don’t compliment Yixing’s.

“Do you realize how _selfish_ you sound?” Kyungsoo spits. “You’re willing to value _your_ life over humanity? Over _billions?_ Over everyone here and your family at home and–“

 _“So what?!”_ Yixing didn’t think he would lose control like this, where’d he be at the point of shouting. But it’s the only way to get Kyungsoo quiet, to get ethics quiet. Why is he the bad guy when he just wants it all to stop? Why does Kyungsoo say _your_ life like it’s selfish he cares about it? “So _what,_ I’m not willing to devalue myself to _waste_ for the lost cause of the ‘right thing’? Even if it’s ‘heroic’, it’s not practical. I’ll be doing nothing for everyone. We’ll be doing nothing for everyone.”

“My _god!”_ Kyungsoo stands up, running his hands through the hair he doesn’t have. “That’s _why_ continuing will change that! We’ll be able to do _something!_ And you haven’t even read everything I have for yourself yet. Don’t be so close-minded. You’ll think differently once you read it all. And I’ve got a–“

“And _you_ haven’t even been targeted by RF, have you?” Yixing snaps back as he stands as well. He knows what a tirade had gotten him into last time but now, quite frankly, he doesn’t care to be civil to idiots. “RF hasn’t picked _you_ to corner and question and hint at everything you’re doing all while she’s piling assignment over assignment on you so you can’t get a _minute_ of sleep and you feel like you’re going fucking _insane,_ has she? Don’t be so stupid. You’ll think differently once _you’re_ backed up against a wall and _your_ wrist starts to burn.”

 _“Excuse me?”_ Kyungsoo’s tone dips dangerously. A step is taken towards Yixing and Yixing refutes the impulse to back up. “Do you _seriously_ think you’re the only one that’s suffered? Fucking hell…

“You have _no_ idea what it’s like. What it’s like to lose your best friends like that and what it’s like to silence yourself for a whole fucking _year._ When you _actually_ have no one that understands anywhere and you’re _billions_ of lightyears away from anything else, _any_ hope, you're _bound_ to this destiny of getting fucked over, and honestly? You just want to kill yourself. You even try to at one point.” Just barely a pause of the glare faltering, heavy breaths between their faces stalling. “…Don’t you act like I can’t even _fathom_ how you feel. That you’re _alone._ That what you’re going through is _oh_ _too much_ to just fucking _tough it out_ like the rest of us. RF 'targeting' you is _nothing_. There are bigger issues."

 _…Dramatic._ He’s being called dramatic. Everything that’s happened between them and only them and still along with everyone it’s _Kyungsoo_ who calls him dramatic.

Is he?

“I will, then.” Tears rush to his eyes but he blinks them away and swallows a wavering voice. He’s _not_ going to prove him right. “I _will_ know what it’s like. When you try to save everyone on your heroic suicide quest and end up _just_ like your best friends did.”

“I _won’t.”_ Kyungsoo says so forcibly Yixing knows he truly believes it. “I won’t. If you’d just shut up and fucking _listen,_ you’d hear that I have a–“

 _“Plan?_ You’ve got a _plan?”_ Yixing interrupts. “Is it the same as the plan that let RF find us out? Is it the same plan that Yifan and Luhan and Zitao had where they said,” Yixing switches to the language it was said in, he had thought he'd forget it yet he recites it word for word, “’Kyungsoo _also told me that the cameras go off at night, that’s why we can even pull this off in the first place.’”_ And repeats in Korean, “’Kyungsoo told me that the cameras go off at night, that’s why we're even able to pull this off in the first place’? _Hm?”_

A couple seconds to process and Kyungsoo sounds utterly mortified, _“What?”_

Yixing feels his heart clench at Kyungsoo’s voice, his own. Even with rage seething off the both of them Kyungsoo’s still something that’s warm and has emotion, something he can still hug and truly _know._

“The first night we looked for where they died, I didn’t translate when they said it because I didn’t want you to feel worse– I had told you they called you the smartest. Remember?” Yixing forces his voice calm, though the ends of his sentences tremble with emotion. “But now it’s clear you need a reality check that you’re _not_ the hero you think you are. You’re _not_ going to be the hero you think you’re going to be. You’re going to be the fourth member of EXO to die on a mission. Maybe it’s a good thing someone else knows beforehand, but it looks like you’ve already deluded yourself _too_ far to save.”

And perhaps it wasn’t the nicest thing to say, and perhaps Yixing is suddenly feeling remorse at the way he loses eye contact, looks to the floor, lips parted in surprise; shock; hurt. Because it was harsh. But it was true. But it was harsh…

No. He doesn’t regret it. 

“I’m not having any more part in this… So don’t talk to me if it’s gonna be about that.” At this point, he just wants Kyungsoo to feel hurt, to have tears in his eyes, to be as close to a breakdown as he is, for _him_ to break down and be the dramatic one, but Yixing can’t find the words.

Hopefully leaving him there in the locker room says enough.

Each step from his sneakered feet amplify, and the beat doubles when Yixing realizes his heart is that loud too.

A momentary pause in time as he registers the shut doors behind him, the benign hallway. He’s alone but for the blocked robot through his bracelet, the cameras in the corners, the ears in the walls; those he’s chosen.

Tears rush to his eyes and a sob claws at his throat so sharp he breaks. But it’s only for a split second, as he quickly swallows and slams his palms into his eyes and shoves the tears and hiccups and trembles back into their box because he’s _not_ dramatic he’s not and the box isn’t struggling at all it’s perfectly fine he’s just exhausted and that’s making him think there’s more wrong than there actually is.

Because he’s safe now. He should be smiling. Yixing, let’s smile.

 _This is what you wanted,_ He repeats to himself, continuing on and holding his breath so everything stays in the box. Kyungsoo’s hurt face elicits a bout of regret, tears at the lid, a sudden impulse to return in there sobbing because Kyungsoo’s the only side that could ever give empathy. Everything they’ve been through yet Yixing still betrays him, leaves him alone. And for what? Is Yixing _really_ going to feel any better, still knowing what he knows? There are still secrets he’s keeping and there is still that anxiety that has been balled in his stomach for the past month regardless of him breaking ties with the cause. The only thing that’s changed is that Kyungsoo hates him.

Yixing slaps everything away from the lid. _No, Kyungsoo needed it. And you’re safe now._

If anything, he is doing him good. Even if it meant the exploitation of trauma and telling him there’s absolutely no hope, it’s what Kyungsoo deserves: the blunt truth. Maybe he had said it in a harsh way, but that all the more gets the point across. Kyungsoo was blinded too much by the hope earned from their small successes. Being silent for a year and then suddenly finding someone to make progress with deluded him into thinking it’s possible, into an ambition so strong he doesn’t even _think_ about the burn on his wrist and most certainly not the one on his partner– his partner’s hurt doesn’t matter, he doesn’t know what it’s like. And his partner is making sure they’ll stay safe by perpetuating reality. Maybe Kyungsoo won’t want to be around him now, but maybe that’s just the price of things like this. Besides, he won’t have to feel bad avoiding him because of RF if Kyungsoo avoids him as well.

And he’ll be safe from now on. Even with the secrets, the toxic fear soaking them will slowly fade out like those of the objects in space until, eventually, they won’t bother him so much anymore. There will be nothing more added to his burdens, the anxiety will go away because he did what RF said, RF won’t hurt him, and he’ll sleep and get out of this exhausted daze and get his work done and then he’ll be on top of things and everything will start to go uphill again.

He’s on the right path, he is. So why does he still feel so damn _lost?_

The second thoughts shouldn’t hold any weight. The vision of him and Kyungsoo finding out everything and stopping RF is, although nerve-wracking, nice. Perhaps even nicer than the reality he’s about to continue. What was that plan? But no– he just can’t believe it. He’s still having trouble fathoming the prospect of RF wanting to end humanity in the first place. Yet RF cornered him, heated up his bracelet: that’s something Yixing doesn’t struggle to believe.

For a moment, he recalls the last time he felt this shitty. When he broke down in front of Junmyeon, maybe. It was about how much he missed home and how pathetic he felt. How pathetic he felt because of everyone else, not fitting in, being inadequate. This time, Yixing also feels pathetic because, in the shadow of a ten foot robot, he really _is_. There is absolutely nothing he can do except follow orders and beg to not be hurt. Only if he could go back to worrying about things like killing a giant space cat.

Yixing notices the walls also have lines.

It’s like he’s in a maze. Has been forever. Except that the maze on Earth is easy, and the maze on Earth has rules called Logic, such as lines that do not change and there are absolutely no spots where he can be trapped. The maze in space is different because it doesn’t have Logic, so it cheats and moves its way around Yixing to make sure he’s somewhere he can never get out. Now, anything he does will end up bad. He’ll go crying in apologies to Kyungsoo and they’ll keep going and die. He’ll continue like this living with himself and his betrayal and he’ll die anyway because Kyungsoo is right in what RF’s doing. 

The ridges on the wall only provide one pathway between the two dead ends of the ceiling and the floor. 

Suddenly, there’s a beep.

 _21:54:29EXT._ Yixing looks away from the lines, stops, and slides the white metal up his wrist slightly, revealing the bandage. He’ll never be able to feel the skin around his right wrist for the rest of his life.

“I stopped, RF…” He mumbles, feeling his eyes sting once again at voicing it out loud. Nothing makes any signal to hint to the robot was listening. He sits down against the wall.

One of the most frustrating parts is that Yixing still doesn’t know _why him?_ It makes sense logically, but why _him?_ Not another person like him? Another Chinese living in Korea aged nineteen? Why he can’t be at home, probably with a job right now, probably still living with his mother right now, probably petting Cat right now, probably content right now; probably happy right now. It’s the most baffling thing to compare where he is now to where Yixing’s supposed to be now. Although he would have rather done some things than not, he would have rather not gone through all of this stress. Even if he had grown from some of it; what is learning from all of this if he won’t return to Earth to use the knowledge? 

Yixing doesn’t want to die as much as he can’t fathom dying. And the problem dawns upon him that he has _no_ idea how he’s going to keep this to himself. How he’s going to hide everything because he doesn’t want to endanger himself any further. How long will he have to do it? When will it end? He’s pretty sure he’s asked himself this before but when did it all go so _wrong?_

Maybe he’ll just plan short term. For now, Yixing will stay here, running stressed hands through his hair and tapping his bracelet on repeatedly waiting for a confirmation he’s safe and staring off into nowhere because he doesn’t want to return to reality. And when he does, he’ll go and try to sleep. And then he will be on the mission and whatever it entails.

Right, the mission. And whatever it entails.

There’s just _so much._ Everything, from the possibility of being used to kill his own species to not being able to say anything to having to stifle any emotion to the books he has to read and essays he has to write to missing his home dearly, to even smaller things like how is he going to live with that guilt from what he said to Kyungsoo, what Kyungsoo said to him, it's not true but he can't stop thinking about it, Kyungsoo’s face faltered and spirit broken and Yixing, I thought I had you, to how is he going to keep up this secret with Junmyeon to is Minseok going to slip in a training before tomorrow?, why can’t he just be nice and god he’s just so _tired_ all the time he just wants it to end, will this choice even stop it all?, and RF, how is he not going to tremble in her presence? She won’t be targeting him anymore but that doesn’t change what he knows.

It’s so much. Junmyeon said it would get better.

But Yixing’s told more lies.

Now it’s nothing but enduring. It has been nothing but enduring. Even so, it doesn’t stop. Although an hour passes and there’s a slight numbness to everything, he still feels horrible. Anxiety mixed with frustration and longing and sadness– something nothing nor nobody can fix.

But Yixing, you have _no_ idea what it's like _,_ do you?

Eventually, after reaching infinite dead ends, he gives up trying to detail his plan. He stands up shakily, deciding that he’s just going to have to go in blind; going to have to try without knowing what’s going to happen; whether he’ll break down as soon as he reaches the EXO-M dorms, or Junmyeon asks “Are you okay?” with that sincere look in his eyes, or if Kyungsoo actually did continue alone and actually did die– oh, _god,_ Yixing doesn’t want to imagine it…

The dormitory is reached, and for a moment, Yixing considers getting Junmyeon. He quickly decides against it, because he knows he’ll break down about something he can’t even tell him, and he does absolutely _not_ want to risk seeing Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo seeing him. He instead enters the M dorms, everyone asleep. Somehow, the backdrop of Sehun’s quiet snoring isn’t so annoying anymore. It’s rather comforting to know that somebody is there. Even if Sehun doesn’t actually like him. 

Yixing slides off his shoes and changes before climbing up into the bed, catching a glimpse of the golden sheep on the post before laying onto his back. A moment passes and he then grabs it, inspecting the trinket in his hands. It does absolutely nothing, no matter how much Yixing stares at it, waiting for some Disney magic to come in and make it start talking: _Yixing, you got this! Get through it, you a bad bitch! Fighting!_

He sighs as he places it back, deciding he should get some sleep. Or at least attempt. The mission requires searching, which requires a lot of paying attention and looking around and walking, and if he doesn’t sleep he won’t be able to do that and a sour mood will exacerbate it. Maybe not as bad a mood as now, but definitely something still hindering.

But, of course, Yixing finds himself tossing and turning, the blankets getting too hot or too cold no matter where they are, and whenever he closes his eyes he feels this sudden adrenaline. Fear of the absolutely ridiculous, and he has to keep his eyes open, he has to think about everything and solve it, because Yixing hates doing things without having them figured out first. 

And until now Yixing hadn’t realized how loud he is because he has been in an individual room for the past month. When Sehun’s snoring suddenly stops and Yixing hears wrestling that’s not himself, he stops all movement.

“Hyung, _shh.”_ Comes a groggy voice, followed by more wrestling.

Yixing doesn’t apologize but tries to remain quiet, staying still until he hears Sehun’s snores begin again. Then, he lets himself readjust from the discomfort, shutting his eyes and trying to let consciousness fade away. It doesn’t work, and he ends up turning around again, kicking at the blankets when he gets twisted and frustrated. It gets to the point where his eyes start to burn.

Sehun’s snores stop again.

 _“Stop._ _I’m trying… sleep…”_ A whine. Yixing can see him shoving the comforter up to his ear.

Although repeating the same process probably isn’t in his best interest, Yixing stays silent. This time, he governs himself: he’s going to stay absolutely still until he feels tired. And then after that he’s going to stay still even more so he’ll fall asleep.

What happens instead is that, once tossing and turning to find the right position to stay still in, Yixing suddenly feels restless. Tension lines his body, burning especially on his stomach that touches the bed, his arm that holds the blanket over his eyes, his feet that are heels up. Eventually, he gives in, turning and sitting up in a huff except that he’s a little too vexed because he accidentally kicks the side rod, causing a loud reverb. He freezes, listening for anyone awake.

Nothing from Minseok nor Jongdae, who, for some reason, are sleeping in their respective beds tonight, but Sehun’s snoring stops yet again.

This time, Yixing sees him sit up, rubbing at his eyes and brows furrowed in annoyance. He stands up and Yixing just sits because at this point he doesn’t care to pretend it’s not him making the noise.

Sehun scratches his head and his voice comes out groggy as he squints at Yixing, “What are you doing?”

“Not sleeping.” Yixing answers tersely, eyes flickering to the sheep. Who slumbered for days on end without a care in the world. “Sorry for waking you, I’ll be quieter.”

“You’re _seriously…_ staying up before a mission?” Despite his tired voice Yixing can still grasp the attitude, like Sehun thinks he’s the dumbest person in the universe.

“I’m not sleeping because I fucking _can’t,_ idiot. You think I like to feel like this?” Sehun’s face suddenly chastens from his sleepy daze and Yixing realizes that was a little mean.

“Sorry. You’re not an idiot. I’m just… in a bad mood. Go to bed.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.” Sehun snaps back, and with that Yixing thinks he’s going to leave to go take a midnight leak or snack or maybe _he’s_ the one that randomly screams in the halls at ungodly hours every other week, but instead, he comes up onto the bed. _Yixing’s_ bed.

“What are you doing?” He questions as Sehun ascends the ladder. For a moment, they just make eye contact. Then, Sehun wordlessly continues the motion and crawls onto the bed, sitting back against the wall like Yixing had been, except instead of staring at the ceiling they’re staring at each other.

“I thought you didn’t like me.” Yixing confronts the elephant in the room– or, rather, the bony kid next to him who’s making himself at home in Yixing’s bedding.

“I don’t.” Is all he says.

Since Sehun clearly lacks basic conversation ethic, Yixing gets specific. “Then why are you sitting up here with me, someone you don’t like?”

“Cause I want to.” 

_“Why?”_ Yixing annoyedly shifts when Sehun tugs at the blanket from under him. 

“Why can’t you sleep?” He asks instead, yawning. Everything in his expression says sleepy and Yixing’s seriously wondering why he’s talking to him in the middle of the night.

“Stress.” Sehun has given up on eye contact and is just looking him up and down, cheek on his knee in an intent position that suggests the way he’s looking at him isn’t scrutinous, but Yixing knows better and still eyes him warily in preparation of being attacked or something. After all, he sure enjoyed beating Yixing up a couple weeks ago. And hasn't showed remorse since

“Do you get nightmares?”

Yixing narrows his eyes but Sehun’s countenance doesn’t alter in the slightest. Why is he asking _that_ specific of a question? Why is he even here in the first place? Is this some kind of peace treaty via finding some root of sympathy?

“Yes.”

“Me too.” Sehun’s lithe fingers paw the comforter. For some reason, he suddenly doesn’t seem so intimidating. “Junmyeon helps me.”

“O… kay…” Yixing doesn’t know what to say to that. _I’m sorry? Congratulations? I have to go to the bathroom BRB?_ (but then not actually come back because he still won’t know what to reply). Is Sehun trying to hint at something or is he saying edgy things just to say edgy things?

“He’s the only one.” Sehun says and Yixing gets the impression that he’s not saying edgy things just to say edgy things. _The only one…_ Sehun’s trying to tell him he thinks Yixing will take Junmyeon away? It’s taken him a _month_ to say this?

After he says it, he sits up. Letting go of the blankets, Sehun crawls over to the space between Yixing hugging his knees and the rail. He stretches out and lays down, pulling the blanket up and forcing Yixing to turn and press himself to the other side. Sehun pulls the pillow towards him a bit to rest his head on. Apparently, this is completely normal, as he then shuts his eyes.

After a moment of bewildered staring, because is Sehun going to _sleep_ here?, Yixing asks, “Again, _what_ are you doing?”

Sehun’s eyes flutter open, narrowing at Yixing’s confused look. He takes a moment to answer.

“If you’re gonna be with _my_ Hyung, I have to make sure you’re good enough.” At a look of even further bemusement, he then says. “And you’re not looking very good right now.”

“Um… okay…” Yixing finds it very odd, and he momentarily wonders if Sehun plans to choke him in his sleep. But maybe it’s just weird considering how stressed he is and this only goes to show how little people know of his problems. At least this seems to solve one of them, though: Sehun has accepted him. Or is at least considering. It’s probably becoming less and less with the longer Yixing sits practically glued to the side of the bed, so he tentatively settles down. He tries to not take too much room as he lays on his back, left arm swung over to his right side along with everything else angled that way, because it’s just a little bit strange to be sleeping with _Sehun._ The most contact he’s had with him is getting pinned to the ground.

But again, apparently this is completely normal. As soon as he stops being so tense, Sehun throws an arm and a leg over him, bringing himself closer as he digs Yixing’s left arm up and around him so he can rest his head on his chest. Of course, Sehun does this often, when he sleeps with Junmyeon or Chanyeol or the occasional Mindae, but _Yixing?_

It’s the strangest conflict, because the human contact brings _way_ more comfort than it should, but that comfort is undermined when Yixing reminds himself it’s _Sehun_ who’s doing this. Sehun who sasses him every chance he gets and smiles when he beats him up. Yet, detached from the person, Yixing finds an immense soothe being close to someone like this, something that makes him warm upon contact instead of having to wait shivering in under his comforter for an hour.

“You’re…” Yixing speaks, “You’re not going to do anything to me, are you?”

A soft _mm mm_ emits with a slight shake of the head, _“No’ tonigh’…”_

The younger lets out a sigh, everything completely contrasting to cold-guy-Sehun.

As seconds pass, everything about him seems to soften, manifesting the innocence of a child. Of course, three years isn’t that much of a disparity, but when it’s sixteen versus nineteen, three years makes a big difference. Yixing couldn’t imagine coming here as a sixteen-year-old: not fully mature, still in high school, not having any idea where life is going to take him, only to be forced into a completely different one. At least he was out of high school. Sehun’s a sophomore. Or early junior. But was brought as a freshman. Just out of middle school. It’s only now in the dark that he really looks his age.

Maybe this really is a kind of peace treaty, Yixing thinks. It seems that Sehun, in his own don’t-forget-I-hate-your-guts way, is attempting to be friendly. Unless this is all a ploy for him to wait until he’s asleep and strangle him, of course, but the way Sehun’s fully relaxed nuzzled into him says otherwise. It’s strange, because Yixing should be disliking him because he’s a brat but there’s just something about Sehun that demands his affection. Is it the vulnerable innocence that rarely comes out or is it just that when someone’s cuddled up to you like this especially when you're so weak you usually can’t help but have positive feelings towards them?

When Yixing finds his arm curling around him, it occurs to him how much simply having somebody _there_ changes things. Even if it’s not the preferred Junmyeon, another presence alone somehow adds to Yixing’s empty hope jar, alleviating the decrepit void just a bit and allowing him to be fine. Not great, but fine, okay. Even if he had just shattered his second closest friendship here and has sided with something that’s trying to kill his species because he was scared into submission, the cuddles make it feel a little bit better despite its zero contribution pragmatically.

 _You’re a mess,_ Yixing thinks as his thoughts go to Kyungsoo and more tears well at his eyes. They don’t fall and he quickly blinks them away, holding the kid tighter.

It takes a while, but his mind finally lets fatigue in. He is at last able to shut his eyes and keep them that way, and although he’s still lost, somebody is physically holding him, which is enough to support him to sleep. The places where Sehun’s joints poke no longer feel so inhibiting and the warmth radiating off him slowly lulls unconsciousness closer and closer.

He doesn’t even notice Sehun’s snores.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whewww that was intense~
> 
> I'm actually really really curious to hear your thoughts on this one: who's right and who's wrong? Or, at least, who do you personally agree with and why? Where do you think their respective stances came from?
> 
> I'd say most main characters tend to be agreed with, but this isn't really a direction your main character usually takes, so I'm wondering if we're team still Yixing (or maybe you've had a burning hatred for Yixing this whole time, surprise me) or team Kyungsoo.
> 
> Personally I am team Jongin :D


	43. The Guys and Planet #1563

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing embarks on his first mission as a field agent, though at times it seems there are bigger matters...

**JUST BECAUSE** Yixing falls asleep does not mean he gets good sleep.

He realizes this when he’s startled awake by Sehun, who is no longer cuddled up to him but rather pulling his hair from in between the bars of the bed from the floor. A fatigued glance tells him that Sehun is dressed, dressed standing next to also dressed Jongdae and Minseok. They all stare at him in collective scrutiny. Yixing asks why they hadn’t woken him up. Minseok says they had tried. Yixing then notices the lack of blankets on his bed, or, rather, the _absence,_ because it’s only him and the mattress. Yet he feels weighed down as if there were a thousand comforters over him.

“By the way,” Jongdae is laughing as he climbs onto the rail and lifts up a very familiar golden trinket. “What’s _this?_ It looks kind of dumb… like you, actually, in a dumb way… or maybe you just look dumb… wait, look at me and don’t smile.”

“Give me that.” Yixing mutters, swiping the sheep from him.

Then he gets yelled at the whole time he’s getting ready to ‘hurry up’ and ‘my grandmother puts on socks faster than you’ and ‘I thought your grandmother was dead’. Jongdae even decides to use the good ol’ lightning trick to electrify him into speed. After the bullying, Yixing settles into a bad morning mood, AKA a _bad_ bad mood. But there is also the broken friendship and the stress of RF despite what he told himself last night so he is in a _bad_ _bad_ bad nervous mood, where he wants to fall asleep but at the same time can’t stop fidgeting. And here he had thought the stress would go right away…

With EXO-M, he returns to the familiar long hallway of the Pods. The walk there is pretty much a blur of him trying to A) keep up, B) tie his shoe, and C) not trip on his untied shoelace. There is also D) Sehun shitting on him for the lack of success in A, attitude contrary to last night’s snuggle, but this stops once Yixing snaps with something mean enough for him to go quiet. Upon arrival, he tries to remember which one RF specified, but quickly gives up when he realizes there are more than fifty possibilities. He wonders, if there are only twelve – and now nine – EXO members, then how come so many Pods are needed? Is RF planning on expanding her empire? Or perhaps, if she needed to attack something, each of them could operate autonomously? 

_No, stop thinking about that. You’re done thinking about that._

“Twenty-one, right?” Minseok stops at the given Pod and looks back at the group. Yixing and Sehun shrug in unison. Jongdae shakes his head.

“Nah, I think it’s twenty-two.” He goes to the one parallel, pointing at the door. “This one.”

“No, it’s _not_ twenty-two. I’m _pretty sure_ it’s twenty-one.” Minseok crosses his arms. He seems a little too pressed about this. 

Yixing quickly finds out why, “Christ, Min, you’re _still_ on the rangoons? I _said_ I didn’t eat them!” Jongdae gets nothing but a scoff in response. 

“Yeah, twenty-one.” Sehun sides with Minseok. The eldest raises a sharp brow at his boyfriend, as if saying _beat that._

Inevitably, when Jongdae looks to Yixing in desperation to _beat that,_ he realizes he has been brought into this. So, he weighs the options. He doesn’t remember what Pod, no, but he _does_ remember Jongdae putting static in his socks.

“Twenty-one.” Yixing takes a step back to differentiate himself from the gaping Jongdae. What did he expect? Even without the vendetta, he still would have sided with Minseok and Sehun so he wouldn’t create a tie and this could be over and done with already. 

_“Exactly.”_ Minseok hums in victory as he rises onto his toes to look straight into the eyeball scanner (all of them are at the perfect height for Yixing and only Yixing, which is pretty cool). A red light flashes a moment before the door to POD_21 separates.

_“AHH!”_

“INTRUDERS!”

“DON’T LOOK AT HIM, HE’S NAKED!

All Yixing sees before the door immediately shuts is a panicked looking Chanyeol hysterically waving his arms, and behind him the tan blur of Jongin’s butt making a lunge to the side. There’s then a shriek so loud it’s audible behind the door, but that is all before silence permeates the hall and the four frozen EXO-M members. 

Why is it always _Jongin_ naked? Heck, he has seen Jongin’s body more than his own boyfriend’s. He can’t blame him, though: if Yixing had a body like Jongin’s, he wouldn’t mind it being seen. But why are the K members screaming about the guy’s decency if they themselves are in there with him? Perhaps he’ll never know.

Speaking of naked Jongin, Yixing looks over to gauge the youngest’s reaction. Sehun is as expressionless as ever, but his face turns into something a bit annoyed when he catches him staring.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Yixing dismisses, trying to follow the reluctant Minseok but his shoulder is grabbed.

 _“What?”_ Sehun repeats, voice tapering into a whine.

“I said nothing.” This time, Yixing smiles _just_ to irk Sehun. He slips out of his grip, skipping over to POD_22.

Minseok is kicking Jongdae in the butt as they enter, so Yixing keeps a safe distance as he looks around the Pod. It is identical to the other one with its overwhelming amount of buttons on every glossy black surface. He glances back to Sehun to see the door disappearing behind him. With this, he remembers specifically how there hadn’t been any trapdoor to get to the lower section, rather it just appeared right then and there. 

This is proven accurate when Jongdae steps onto a random spot near the corner and two lights suddenly branch out from his foot. The lines trail into a rectangular shape that solidify to material when they meet. He casually bends down and pulls a latch that had spawned under his foot, opening a tight entrance to what looks like stairs. Despite being here for as long as he has, Yixing still can’t believe his eyes.

There is also the same winding staircase and narrow hallway as last time. He watches his step to make sure he doesn’t trip as he follows the group into a room. This one is quite spacious, though the ceiling is still very low. Fluorescent lights illuminate what seems to be a dressing room. Racks of clothes are positioned about and weapons line the walls. It looks more like the backstage of a theater than a galactic mission preparation room. There are even mirrors. 

Yixing quickly recognizes a pattern of respective stations. An embossed sign hangs on each of the four racks that hold an outfit; around the racks other items such as weapons and some sort of technology he’s pretty sure is a microphone. He finds his area in the far corner, _AGENT LAY_ in bold. It makes him feel like some sort of celebrity to have his name on something that isn’t a school assignment or a legal paper.

He then focuses to the rack, which has each article of clothing separately hung from little hangers (even the right and left sock). The outfit reminds him of what Baekhyun wears, the fighter pilot janitor thing, except that it’s not a jumpsuit. For the top there is a navy bomber jacket, stylized with a chest pocket, a maroon stripe under that pocket, and a collar of the same color. As he puts it on, he finds the wrists have small metal buckles and a random zipper pocket on his left arm.

He gets an odd look from Sehun.

“What?” Yixing asks. Although he is prone to doing things wrong here, he is merely putting on a jacket. How can he do _that_ wrong?

“The undershirt.” Sehun points to his rack and Yixing realizes he’s missing part of the outfit. He then catches a glimpse of Jongdae and also realizes that the outfit is really a _full_ outfit (including underwear, he notices to his dismay).

He shrugs the jacket off and tosses it over the rack to pick up a collared button-down shirt, white color complimentary to the jacket’s navy and maroon. He angles himself away from everyone as he pulls off his tee, exchanging it for the shirt. It’s rather stiff, coldness tempting him to overlay the jacket before he even buttons it up. Somehow, though, it’s the perfect fit, giving him full mobility plus the comfort of slight oversizing. 

The pants are the same navy and have elastic tighteners at the ends of the legs like something he’d see on sweatpants. He makes the same mistake he does with the jacket and completely forgets about the undergarment, so he then has to go back and change into those, which, by the way, are quite _constricting_. Then there are white socks and white high-tops that match the undershirt. There is also a belt for the pants which he gladly takes, because although the pants are comfortable, that also makes them a bit loose at the waist. The finishing touch is Yixing taking the golden sheep from his pocket and placing it into the one of the jacket.

When he’s finished, he goes to the mirror that’s not occupied by Sehun (whose face is apparently a very important part of the uniform that requires a lot of attention). Yixing scans himself up and down. It looks more like a school uniform than anything. Turning, he realizes that, contrary to the past missions, everyone is wearing pretty much the same thing. They’re all in variants of the same three-color bomber-pants-high-tops combo. Each one is personalized with meaningless quirks, such as the large patch on Jongdae’s left chest or the random maroon section of Sehun’s jacket.

For some reason, Yixing looks good. Handsome, even. The uniform fits him well and makes him the most professional he has been since he has gotten here. Not like this had much competition, though (monochromes of sweatpants and t-shirts and the occasional slacks when he felt like looking presentable. Oh, and the superman pajamas. Wonder where those ever went).

Though as Yixing leans closer, who’s really there becomes more lucid: someone exhausted. The first thing he notices are his eyes, the veins bright red at the edges and the teary look that doesn’t go away even though there are no tears and he wipes his eyes to make sure. His undereyes are the darkest he’s ever seen them, exacerbated by the general puffiness of his face since he only recently woke up. Acne sprawls across his cheeks, the bright red cystic kind that he usually got before around seventeen when his skin cleared up.

He takes a step away and he’s back to normal. He diverts his focus to the outfit. “Why are we all matching?”

“Because we’re going all together.” Minseok answers unhelpfully while he slips a headband on, sliding right in front of Yixing to neaten his hair. 

“It doesn’t happen often, that _everyone’s_ on one, so it’s pretty important. Though to answer your question, really just aesthetic purposes.” Jongdae answers helpfully. He gestures behind Yixing. “Also, you might want to get a weapon or two. Plus your comm unit.”

Yixing turns, seeing what he’s referring to. He nods, approaching the hung selection of guns, knives, and other contraptions he can’t decipher the purpose of despite seeing them around in training. Everything offered is small, but he doubts what they’re capable of is small. He sees something that resembles a flamethrower but with three muzzles instead of one. 

Standing in front of the buffet of artillery, despite his last month of training, Yixing still has zero fucking idea what to choose. It also scares him, because if he’s supposed to take them that means he’s probably supposed to use them, which probably won’t be while stationary at a big purple target. Along with his power being _healing,_ Yixing has scant way to defend himself other than his fists.

So he’s definitely going to stay close to the others, he decides as he picks up something he can sort of use: two knives and a small gun resembling the training one. He puts the knives in two conveniently placed pockets on his belt, the same with the gun on his other side. Now he doesn’t feel like a high schooler, but rather a secret agent, going into a high school. Or an American.

Now for the mic, Yixing remembers. On the bottom part of his rack sits a wired contraption, the only recognizable part the little black dot that’s the actual microphone piece. He uses the mirror to try to put it on, but he has no idea why the wire splits into three and where those three parts are supposed to go and _how_ it works because all of the wires just end abruptly without connecting to anything but each other and the mic on the other end.

“Here, Hyung, let me help.” Sehun is suddenly there, taking the mic from Yixing’s uncoordinated fingers. It takes him a moment to register the act of kindness before he watches him through the mirror.

However, his mind quickly goes somewhere else. To Sehun cuddled up to him last night. It’s awfully strange how comforting humans are. For some reason, being here, with Junmyeon, with Kyungsoo, investigating, even; it all feels safer than being with the technology that could keep him alive through absolutely anything. It’s completely impractical and goes against simple logic, because siding with RF is the smartest thing he could do, yet Yixing can’t help but feel a sense of _home_ with these guys, something that’s devoid in the presence of the robot, despite her protection.

Yixing shakes the thought off. _You’re emotional because you didn’t get much sleep._ Sehun’s sticking the third wire of the mic down his shirt and somehow it remains there. Then, he feels the whole thing solidify, but the only place he can really sense the mic is where his mouth is. It’s a small black fuzz with, as he discovers touching it, a tiny switch. There are three positions. 

“Thank you,” Yixing says as he lets go of it, squinting at Sehun. There’s something different about him (besides the being nice thing).

“Wasn’t your hair down just a minute ago?” He asks, recalling Sehun ruffling his hair earlier. His hair that was flat on his forehead. 

“There’s stuff you can use.” He points to Minseok, who is currently scooping white paste out of a small jar and running it through his hair.

“Great.” He nods as he heads over, glancing at Minseok who seems to have _way_ too much before looking into the jar. It’s almost all gone. So, before Minseok can take any more, he grabs the container and brings it to the other mirror, ignoring the _“Hey!”._

Minseok had really used almost all of it (and is _still_ complaining), so Yixing is left with the scraps to depend on. He isn’t able to get his hair fully slicked back like he wanted, but he can part it and push it back enough that it’s not a direct hindrance on his vision. He kind of needs a haircut. Who’s the haircutter here? Or is it a robot? Or Kyungsoo? In either case… well, Zhang Rapunzel it is. 

After this, he’s all set. Or, at least, he thinks he’s all set. Nerves tingle his insides, waking him up but also making his mind a bit foggy. He goes over to Sehun, who is digging through drawers of ammunition. It then dawns upon him that he should probably be getting some as well.

“Sehun, what does this use?” Yixing takes out the small gun.

Sehun inspects it for a moment. Then, he turns to the drawer, pulling out a small box. “This one.”

“Thanks,” Yixing takes it, wondering how he’s going to store this. He doesn’t recall anyone ever using backpacks on missions, strangely enough. “Also, now that I have this, am I all set to go?”

Sehun looks him up and down, shrugging. “I guess.”

At the rather unenthusiastic response, Yixing just nods, figuring it’ll be better to leave him alone before he gets annoyed. Especially since he has just gotten on his good side. He heads to where the door is, sitting on a small crate and watching Minseok put up his hair. But then he stops watching when Jongdae gets involved and starts messing with places that aren’t his hair and instead focuses on putting the bullets in the magazine and the magazine in the gun. He discovers there are little bullet pockets in the belt as well.

After a couple minutes, Sehun comes to join him, sitting on another crate nearby. Instead of making any conversation, he focuses on his shoelaces. Of which are already tied. Jongdae comes next, placing himself on the floor against Yixing’s crate and kicking his feet up on Sehun’s, much to the younger’s dismay.

“Get your feet off.”

“Nah,” Jongdae simpers, then leaning his head back so he’s looking straight up at Yixing. “This is your first mission on the field, right?”

Yixing scoots so they’re not making contact so he doesn’t somehow (‘somehow’) get electrocuted, “Right...” And why is he being so casual? Yixing is pretty sure he hates him. Has hated him.

Jongdae ignores the movement and just leans back even more. “That’s exciting. But also you’re lucky, cause everyone’s here. That almost _never_ happens.”

This time, Yixing pettily gets up and moves to another crate. Jongdae’s upside down face falls and Yixing says, “I don’t want you to shock me.”

 _“Wha?”_ Jongdae turns over but keeps the expression. “Shock you? Now when would I _ever_ hurt you, Hyung?”

No matter how long Yixing stares, Jongdae’s face remains the same.

“Literally _just_ this morning?”

“What, the static in the socks?” Jongdae snorts, “That doesn’t even hurt.”

Fine, but it’s still damn annoying. “Well, you’ve also threatened to hurt me on more than one occasion and I don’t hold it below you.”

Jongdae’s eyes widen, “Really? You _still_ take that seriously? Mmm…” He goes like he’s solving a math problem, “Oh, is this about what you did to Min? In that case, don’t worry about what I’ve said, consider it forgiven. He got his justice, no?”

 _His justice._ Yixing says nothing, keeping his eyes on the floor.

“Agh, Yixing-hyung,” There’s suddenly a hand squeezing his thigh, “you should know, things here are pretty systematic. Once things are even, everything’s fine. It’s not good to keep strained relationships.”

It’s not fine. It’s literally _not_ fine. What Yixing did amounts nothing to everything Minseok’s done to him. Yixing does all he can to not slap Jongdae’s hand with all his might and instead gently push it off.

“Come on,” Yixing flinches when his thigh is _slapped,_ “suck it up, you grinch. You can’t go sulking around cause someone got their revenge on you.” It’s like Yixing had deserved it. It’s like Yixing still deserves it and much more. He looks up to Sehun, trying to see if his rare form of mercy is still present, but he’s simply watching with that annoyed look on his face.

“Sorry.” Yixing mumbles because it’s not worth it to argue. “It’s not because of that. I’m just… in a bad mood today.”

“Awh, poor you,” Jongdae mocks because Yixing doesn’t say _I’ve been in a bad mood for the last month,_ though there’s not even certainty he wouldn’t make fun at that. The hand comes off his thigh to poke his cheek. “But in all seriousness, you should smile. It’ll help. Promise.”

When Yixing simply stares again, or perhaps glares because Jongdae’s brows raise, there’s another poke, “Come on, Xing. Smile~”

When the stare is prolonged: “Or I’ll tickle you. And I’m a pretty good tickler.”

Yixing lifts the corners of his lips in the most obvious sham, but Jongdae breaks into a grin. Maybe if Yixing liked him he’d find it cute and grin too.

But he just wants to disappear.

 _“HELLO AGENTS!”_ Seems to be something everyone can hear by how Sehun falls off his crate, Jongdae’s grin turns into a scream, and Minseok shatters the jar of hair gel. As Yixing recovers from his near stroke, RF continues in a normal tone.

“Glad I have gotten your attention. Agent DohBi, this is not a reason to cry, don’t be dramatic. Agent Kai, being scared out of your pants is only an expression, please put them back on.” Yixing _really_ wonders what goes on over in the K pod. Suddenly, he may sympathize with RF a little bit for wanting to destroy humanity. A _little_ bit. “Anyway, you are arriving at your destination, planet #1563. Again, the terrain is rocky and full of cliffs, so please be careful where you step. The shoes provide good traction. There also may be gas brumes at ground level. I advise you do not walk through them or breathe them in, as I am not sure what they contain. Also, do not stray off trail, as I am also not sure what is off trail. 

“As usual, you are using mics. For me to be able to hear you, there is a button found on your communication unit’s body, on the microphone with the three usual functions.” What three usual functions? “Please keep them off unless it is serious. I do not want random noise clogging up the system.”

“Agent DohBi is in charge of the video unit, so report to him if you believe you have found SE_1 and want verification. Agent D.O is responsible for belongings, so report to him if you need anything. The THUs are also with him.” The _whats?_ “Agent Lay–” Wait, that’s _him?!_ “–has access to all of your vitals, so you can direct your health inquiries to him if I am not available.” He feels three pairs of eyes on him, so he fixes his expression as if he knows what she’s talking about.

“You are now landed. Please exit through the posterior doors. Remember that from this moment on your communication units are inactive until manually enabled. I will be here the whole time. As they say in your language, _fighting!_ But hopefully not literally, because I do not want any of you to sustain injuries.”

Suddenly, a velvety voice enters his ears. “Thanks, babe.”

Jongdae starts to reply out loud, “Baek–“ But then realizes he hadn’t switched the tiny lever and does such (but which position is which? Yixing’s is currently at the middle, so is middle muted?). “Baek, you’re _way_ too close to the mic. I can hear your breathing.”

A deep, sultry breath, and Yixing bristles, _“Hnnnng…_ I think I am doing everyone a favor with–“

 _“Agents,”_ RF interrupts. “What part of ‘please keep this off unless it is serious’ do you not understand? I am muting you both for five minutes. Be aware I _can_ make this a permanent thing.”

“He started it!” Jongdae shouts, but luckily Yixing only hears it from a couple feet away. 

Like a soda being shook, the nerves lingering in him fizz when he gets up to follow Sehun and Minseok to the door because, man, he’s _really_ doing this. He’s _really_ going on a mission. It’s absolutely mind-blowing how many times Yixing has had this thought: _this is the craziest thing that has ever happened and nothing will top it._ It’s what he thought when Baekhyun held him at gunpoint in Seoul, except that he also felt it when he saw Junmyeon move water during his explanation that he’s here to save the universe and also when he saw the Pod with all the buttons and the giant space cat on his first mission and also when Minseok told him they were going to be training every day and also when he looked at his bloody wrist while crying in the hallway all alone and also when he felt that tingling feeling in his hands when he got his power working and also when he held Junmyeon, his boyfriend, watching him and not the stars and also when he video called and alien and also when RF cornered him to the wall and started to burn his wrist and also right now.

His hands grip at the hem of his jacket while maneuvering through the narrow hall. Everything quickly comes out of focus as he sees the exit, lifted open to reveal a dark mauve surface shadowed by the door. The air becomes something he’d describe as _tight._ It’s as if it has gotten frigid but without the cold part. Just the part that pricks at his skin and pulls the air taut. He zips up his jacket, but that quickly becomes too hot so he leaves it somewhere halfway.

Yixing doesn’t look back when he descends the ramp, but it’s more for balance purposes than I’m-cool-so-I’m-never-looking-back-movie-moment purposes. Once two feet are planted on the ground, he looks up to meet an extraordinary view.

Living in a city for all of his life, with maybe a countryside excursion once or twice, Yixing doesn’t get that much of so defined ‘views’. Other than what he finds on the internet or the nice painting on his mother’s massage therapist’s wall, he hasn’t encountered many tremendous sights. Even through EXO: he has been captive indoors, having only seen an alien land through Baekhyun’s camera on a mission and the terrain of Exoplanet for perhaps a moment. The technology of aforementioned indoors is mind-blowing, of course, but not in a way like this. _This_ proves that he’s actually here: in _space,_ rather than a very contemporary bunker. In space somehow surviving with just a light jacket and some hightops. 

As far as he can see, which is not a very impressive distance, but still, as far as he can see, is jagged terrain. In sharp patterns the ground spikes and drops, which casts shadows so bold that he really has to look to differentiate it from an actual landform. The most surprising part is how everything is perfectly smooth. There are no craters _anywhere_. In contrast to RF’s CGI simulation of the land in the briefing, everything is completely smooth. The surface is like an animation that was never finished, missing the textures of rocks and lines of realism. Perhaps this really is a newly discovered planet after all. Lifting a foot, Yixing finds a small footprint. If he can make footprints, which means things can mark the surface, then that means this planet is perhaps newly _created,_ too. Cool! 

Looming in the range from three feet above the ground to almost out of his vision are clouds of a creamy substance, of which he guesses are the things he is not supposed to touch or breathe in. Luckily, this shouldn’t be hard, as there are very few of them, most quite a distance from him. They must be very compact from the shadows they make. It seems that all the shadows are _very_ prominent here. Why is that?

Oh, maybe because of the giant planet hovering _right there._

Finally picking his head up, Yixing has to squint to look indirectly towards a bright planet so close it could be _touching_ this one. It reminds him of Saturn with a giant ring around it. However, although it’s bright, he quickly realizes that it’s not the thing emitting the light, as only a hemisphere of it is lit up. He looks the direction the light reflects off of, but he can’t see anything. This is strange considering the light is so strong as to make such prominent shadows. If there’s a light source that strong, it’s likely it’s a dying star which contrasts against the theorized newness of this planet. But then again, there’s also the different elements thing, so maybe this kind of illumination is just normal for this part of space. (And, by the way, absolutely _none_ of this is coming from what he’s learned in his job. That stuff goes in one brain cell and out the other).

Yixing tunes back into the conversation as he can now multitask with taking everything else in.

“–where are they?” He turns back to Jongdae and the Pod behind him. Something he had been so amazed by is suddenly insignificant in the shadow (literally, too) of this place. He does notice that the Pods are rather small for their large inside. The size equates to one of those tiny houses he’d see on the Live Minimalistic Because It’s Cool commercials. It’s made out of the same stuff the floors are, a marble-like black surface, making a sphere. The only feature that differentiates it from a space rock is the door (and how perfectly structured it is). It hovers slightly over the ground, yet Yixing can’t spot any refraction under it, so it looks almost fake. It’s a reminder that he’s in a _very_ different place. He’s nowhere near home. 

“Oh! There!” Comes a shout from Sehun, and Yixing looks over to see him standing dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, pointing into the ravine below.

Yixing gets closer to see what he means but still stays a safe distance away in case 1) there is a strong gust of wind (from the planet _or_ Sehun), 2) someone decides to push him, or 3) he loses balance somehow. Minseok and Jongdae skip right to the edge without the slightest hesitation. Only when they start to wave does Yixing decide it’s fine and goes to join them.

Down, at least a hundred feet, are the members of EXO-K, jumping and waving. Their figures are blurry, but he can make out what they’re saying.

_“HI GUYS!”_

_“HELP! WE CAN’T BREATHE DOWN HERE! WE’RE DYING!”_

_“OH SHUT UP! HE’S KIDDING! KIDDING!”_

And they are returned with shouts just as loud back.

“HOW’S THE WEATHER DOWN THERE?!” Jongdae grins. Yixing is pretty sure Baekhyun is flipping him off.

_“OH YOU’RE SO CONFIDENT NOW, JUST WAIT TILL I GET UP THERE!”_

_“HOW DO WE GET UP!? OH! JONGIN!”_

_“JONGINNIE!”_

_“NO, JONGIN, DON’T–“_

“Hi guys!” Suddenly, Jongin is behind them all, smiling and waving. He’s wearing something similar to all of them and has a stupid as fuck headband like Minseok and his stupid as fuck headband. His happy face suddenly falters. “Wait, are they coming?”

“They–“

“Jongin,” Yixing rushes in before Sehun can antagonize him. “You need to teleport them up here.”

Jongin’s mouth falls open and rounds as he releases a drawn out, _“Ohhhhhhhhh,_ right. I forget you’re all so incapacitated. Okay, bye!”

Before Yixing can comment on his use of vocabulary, he disappears. Yet, before he even takes another breath, the guy’s back, arms around a wide-eyed Kyungsoo. With Kyungsoo’s uniform, he notices, the jacket looks more like a suit than a track vest.

“Jongin, I told you to _warn_ me!” He looks shaken as he wrenches Jongin’s arms off of him. In the emphatic movement, there’s a moment where his eyes flicker up, meeting Yixing’s, the darkness under Kyungsoo’s eyes are more prominent than ever, Yixing doesn’t have to be close to see the blood-shot whites, but they both look away quickly. Yixing then focuses on Jongin, because what is there to say to Kyungsoo?

Jongin disappears and reappears again, this time in the midst of fist-bumping Chanyeol. He does a variety of positions: touches pinkies with Baekhyun, grabs onto Junmyeon’s legs like a sloth, resulting in the leader tripping upon arrival. Yet Junmyeon still smiles, laughing as he uses Jongin’s head to stand himself up. Yixing tells himself that he’s not going to stare for too long but he’s thinking this as he’s staring for too long.

Junmyeon, like Chanyeol and Baekhyun as well, has his sleeves rolled up. His jacket is still the same navy and maroon, though his belt is white instead of black like Yixing’s. But he should probably aim his eyes upwards from here. Junmyeon has his hair up like the plurality of the group. He hasn’t seen him with this style in a while, as he usually just does a small part. Not that he’s super focused on his hairstyle or appearance or anything, but it looks really good. He looks like a superhero. Superman. The whole uniform-esque mission gear suits him, showing a more manly side than the cute-chic-Junmyeon-wardrobe he usually dons. Not that it’s important. Not that Yixing’s thinking so much about this. Not that–

All of the sudden, Yixing is pushed.

A strong gust of wind knocks him off balance, and when that rush of uncontrolled panic comes, he realizes that he is _still_ on the cliff's edge. 

It all happens in a split second that he stumbles backwards, registers that he’s falling, and then two hands catch him by the shoulders. Despite the momentary duration, adrenaline rushes everywhere and his heart beats as if he had just ran ten miles.

There, saving Yixing from certain death, is Sehun. Yixing launches himself forward into the kid, grabbing on for life as he turns away from the edge of the cliff and paces the both of them several steps inland.

“Oh my _god,”_ His eyes bulge. And he’s pretty sure nobody had even seen it but Sehun. Everyone’s focused on Baekhyun who’s currently beating on Jongdae. “I almost just…”

Wait a moment. _Nobody had seen it but Sehun._ Yixing lifts his eyes to meet his face. _A strong gust of wind._

“Be careful, Hyung.” He says, a small smirk playing his lips. That’s when Yixing realizes,

“It was _you,”_ He shoves Sehun off of him, anger replacing all of the panic. “Sehun, what the hell? Are you trying to _kill_ me?” What is this guy’s problem?! Can’t he just decide if he likes him or not?! He knows he probably shouldn’t resort to violence, but Yixing finds himself grabbing the youngest by the collar. He yanks him close, other hand hovering in preparation to pull his hair because if anything, _that’s_ Yixing’s best weapon (except for when it gets you subsequently beat up because _“Fuck!_ Yixing, you can’t fucking _pull hair_ in sparring… but it seems you want to ignore the rules now, so maybe _I_ will too…” “Wait, no, Hyung, I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry, I– _AHH!”)._

“Yixing-hyung, what are you doing?”

Only _now_ does someone notice. Yixing lets go of Sehun’s collar, ignoring the brat’s triumphant face as he turns. Although it was only Chanyeol that asked, just about everyone is looking at him. Does he want to point a finger like a child and try to tell them without proof that Sehun pushed him off the cliff? And then caught him? All in one motion? Whine for somebody to bring justice upon this degenerate? 

Not really. “Nothing.” He grumbles, eyes still pinned on Sehun. When he goes to join Junmyeon in a back-hug, looking Yixing up and down with his arms around his waist and head on his shoulder, Yixing realizes he pushed him because he was staring. _Staring!_ Who is Sehun to think he dictates their relationship? He can be jealous, sure, but that doesn’t mean he can act upon it. Well, he clearly _can,_ as just shown– but he _shouldn’t._ It only adds to Yixing’s worries.

“Agents!” RF’s voice suddenly comes in his ear and on reflex he ends up looking around as if she’ll be behind him. But even so, it sounds more like it’s _inside_ his head; accompanying the voices he already has. Except this one he doesn’t have control over. “The path is to Agent Suho’s left– no, the other left. Yes, that way. SE_1 should be northeastward, and you will all travel straight this way until directed otherwise. Along the way, if there is anything suspicious, let me know and I will determine if it’s worth investigating. Do not go anywhere without permission or on your own. Go ahead, now. Also, Agent Xiumin, please turn off your communication unit. Your breathing is building unnecessary condensation in the microphone. You are currently in the private channel.”

Yixing watches Minseok sheepishly switch the button on his mic, then sliding it downwards so it’s not touching his face. He mimics the action, realizing that it is pretty flexible despite the stiff structure. Then, Junmyeon, in the front with Sehun, points and shouts above the low rumble of discourse.

“Onward march! But first, bring it in. _EXO_ on three!” He holds a fist out in everyone’s general direction, other hand motioning for them to join.

His poor hand remains alone.

“Nah,” Jongdae simpers as he walks past him.

“That’s something my coach would do~” Minseok giggles, passing as well (but not to join his boyfriend).

“…” Kyungsoo just blatantly ignores him.

“You’re so lame, Hyung~” Chanyeol chases after Kyungsoo.

“What is this? Kiddie sports? C’mon, Jongjong.” Baekhyun wraps an arm around Jongin’s shoulders and follows.

“Sorry Hyung, that’s cheesy. Not actually sorry though.”

Even Sehun betrays his beloved best friend. “You’re so embarrassing. I don’t know you.” He rolls his eyes, catching up to the departing group.

This leaves Yixing putting a hand over his mouth to hide a laugh as he proceeds last, stopping in front of Junmyeon and his lonely fist.

“See how they treat me?” Junmyeon is now frowning. He lifts his gaze from his hand to Yixing and his expression suddenly changes from sad to imploring.

“Come on,” His fist is still out and Yixing knows what he wants before he even says it. “You wouldn’t leave me hanging too, right? _Boyfriends_ don’t leave each other hanging.”

But he wasn’t expecting the Boyfriend Card. So, he ends up smiling involuntarily and swallowing whatever sarcastic remark he had before lifting a weak hand to return the fist-bump. Only then does he regret it when Junmyeon blows it up, wiggling his fingers and making an explosion sound effect. Then this thing happens where Yixing cringes but also finds it adorable, creating a strange mix of feelings in his chest.

“You _are_ embarrassing.” He shakes his head as he proceeds after the group.

“But you still decided to date me~” Junmyeon grins as he follows along, grabbing onto Yixing’s arm. _And_ fuck, now he’s smiling again.

“Yes, I did.” Comes a slightly flustered statement, because else what is he supposed to say when he is trying to make his point that Junmyeon is embarrassing but he’s also melting at his adorable antics?

“And–“

 _“Yah,_ lovebirds!” Alarmed, Yixing’s head snaps up to see Minseok a bit of a distance away, hands on his hips. “We’re on a _mission,_ not a romantic getaway! Hurry up!”

Snickers sound and a red-faced glance is exchanged between the two. They run to catch up. 

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Apparently, a Mission With All Members also means it’s Time To Bully Yixing.

It immediately begins after him and Junmyeon join the group, first teased for rosy cheeks and then the Unholy Trinity becomes involved. Baekhyun trades hanging off Jongin’s shoulders for Yixing’s and Jongdae brings Junmyeon into a bro-hold and Chanyeol has an arm slinked around both parties and it’s overall very uncomfortable to walk in but also very hard to escape from. 

“So, ladies and gentlemen– or just gentlemen, since _somebody_ doesn’t want to listen,” Baekhyun makes sure to speak loud enough for everyone to hear. “Let’s get Real™. Yixing-hyung, y’all still virgins?”

Before he can reply, Jongdae shoves a fake microphone up to Junmyeon’s face and, “Let’s get Real™, Junmyeon-hyung. _What_ do you see in him?”

They exchange another flustered glance and Junmyeon starts, “Well, um–“

Chanyeol gasps, “Hesitation! Oh my god, _hesitation!_ Are you seeing this, Yixing-hyung?!” 

Baekhyun pushes his fist microphone up higher so he’s basically just touching his face, “Are you _still_ gon’ be with him after such a betrayal?”

Jongdae slaps a hand over his mouth. _“Oh my gosh!”_

“I–“

 _“Besides,_ Hyung,” Baekhyun continues before he can speak, “I never really got the relationship vibe from you. For Junmyeon, it’s clear he’s desperate for his love and affection to finally be returned,” _(“Hey!”)_ “but for you, the callers, A-K-A everyone here, were saying they were surprised to see you enter a relationship. Tell me, what made you change your mind?”

“My–“

 _“Junmyeon!_ What do you think the economic effect of this relationship is? Will it be in favor of small entrepreneurs, or boost the big corporate business and smash the small ones?"

“Answer wisely, you don’t want Kyungsoo’s family after you~” Chanyeol gets a look from Kyungsoo that’s like: _don’t get me involved please._ Yixing notices his shoulders are hunched (more than usual) and it seems Jongin’s having a hard time talking to him. Yixing looks away.

“Guys–“

 _“Guys?!_ What about the women?! God, Myeonnie, didn’t know you were such a misogynist!” Baekhyun shakes his head.

“Shame on you!”

“I’m–”

And this sort of thing continues for what seems like _hours._ The Unholy Trinity’s one-sided interview leaves the three of them in tears, while everyone else on the sides bursts into fits of giggles. Everyone else except for Kyungsoo. Even the lines that make the grumpy Yixing and Junmyeon laugh (“Multiplication or addition? Will two timid virgins cancel each other out or just double the awkwardness?”) don’t elicit as much as a glance from the sulking boy. Yixing tries to ignore it but every time his eyes land on him a little bit more guilt etches at the part of his conscience he’s told _you made the correct choice_.

The harassment goes until Baekhyun and Jongdae and Chanyeol finally get bored of their lack of response (as Junmyeon and Yixing tacitly decided silence was the best solution), then diverting their attention to something that isn’t Yixing or Junmyeon or Yixing and Junmyeon. However, this opens the opportunity for _Sehun_ to bother him. For a good ten minutes he blows little gusts of air onto his neck without cease. No matter where Yixing angles himself, Sehun always gets him in the same exact spot, looking away innocently when he glares and denying when he accuses. Soon enough, Jongdae joins in on the action, zapping tiny pricks of electricity over his body. They’re so gentle they don’t even register as something electric, but they’re still annoying. Not long after this Yixing begins to see stuff in front of him, consisting of a lovely range of things from vulgar language to the male genitalia.

After failing the _acknowledging-bad-behavior-only-encourages-it_ method, Yixing tries to stop it discreetly, but it’s a bit hard to distance himself from the group when they’re all going the same way. He remonstrates the party several times, but it ends up more of a hushed shout because of the quietness of the setting. All they do is avert their eyes, giving a _wasn’t me_ before Yixing can’t walk without not looking where he’s going anymore so he turns back around and then it starts all over again.

When a zap reaches where _nothing_ should be zapping, all discreetness is lost.

 _“Jesus Christ!”_ Yixing stops as he turns, shoving a snickering Jongdae back. “Would you _cut it out!?_ Can’t you go bother someone else?!” _And_ now everyone’s looking.

“No!” Jongdae beams. “You’re the only one that can’t do anything.”

“Yes I can.” Is definitely a lie because Yixing can sure pull someone’s hair, maybe win a fist fight, but that’s not much against someone who can smite you with a lightning bolt or blow you off a cliff or literally _blind_ you.

Baekhyun snorts. “What’re you gonna do, _heal_ us?”

“No. In fact, I won’t heal you at all. Ever.” It comes out as more of a bluff, because it’s not like Yixing could actually do it in the first place. Once again he curses RF for choosing _healing_ as his power. Who had the idea that he was some sort of pacifist?! Even worse, he can barely protect himself without powers, so that’s all the more why he should’ve gotten a useful one!

“You’re saying that as if we haven’t gone _years_ without you.” Sehun retorts, and Yixing can’t reply because he is right. Realistically, he isn’t that much of an addition to the team. Realistically, he’s just… well, an occupied space. Maybe a good brain. Definitely a punching bag.

“Guys, stop messing with him, seriously.” Comes another voice, one such that Baekhyun gasps and Jongdae’s jaw drops and then all of the attention is off of him to tease Junmyeon.

Not long after this, though, interest is lost in haha-you-acknowledged-Yixing’s-existence-fucking-lovesick-dweeb and is instead placed on the terrain, which becomes a lot harder to trek. Although every surface is completely smooth, that doesn’t stop it from being a hard climb. Yixing has to watch where he’s stepping as to not trip on a perfect rectangle jutted up out of the ground, though half the time it ends up being just very prominent shadows he’s avoiding. At one point he swears he sees something _move,_ but through the last couple weeks Yixing has sworn he saw something move many times and then Baekhyun laughs so he figures it’s just him messing around.

The exploration gets exponentially more difficult. As they progress, the path starts to thin out, sides sloping at sharper and sharper angles. It seems that they are following high ground. At some points, it’s so narrow that it seems they’re walking on a knife’s edge, Yixing just barely managing to not fall into a ravine on either side (Jongin even _does_ fall, but a second later he teleports right back up into his prior walking status as if nothing had happened– except for Yixing’s, and evidentially also Chanyeol’s and Jongdae’s and Baekhyun’s and Junmyeon’s and Kyungsoo’s and Minseok’s and even Sehun’s, heart attack). This is made harder by the large Saturn-like planet looming over them. It’s so grand that he can’t help but stare and be entranced by the cool colored medley.

That doesn’t mean the journey is not boring, though. Despite the conversation put on by the other guys, Yixing doesn’t find himself very interested. He would go talk to Kyungsoo or Junmyeon, whom he is sure would make good discussion, but Kyungsoo and him are currently status: not friends, and whenever he goes near Junmyeon it is immediately pointed out and he can’t speak one sentence to the guy without being mimicked or scrutinized. It’s the same vice versa, so they reach consensus in a longing stare that they’ll talk later. Somehow. So, sooner or later, Yixing ends up lagging a bit and letting himself get lost in his mind. 

However, it’s not very effective because he has to focus on where he is going and that takes away the ability to be completely occupied, leaving a blank space of boredom. He attempts several methods: the purple of this ground. _Yes, and…;_ contemplating the meaning of life for the 28391839th time; did dogs or cats go into space first; if he could make a customize a dog how would he customize it; did Namjoon ever receive his email; counting how many rings are on that planet; determining whether this planet could host life and if so what kind; playing Red Velvet’s Cookie Jar without mistakes. All of them begin to work, but are ultimately interrupted by some kind of distraction due to his low concentration in the first place. The electric boost from Jongdae starts to wear off and the weighted fatigue he had felt when he woke up starts to seep back in.

Fortunately, he doesn’t have to be _that_ person who complains about the tedium.

“Hyung,” Jongin says to no one in particular (except for not Sehun), “when are we going to be there?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun joins, “I’m tired.”

“I’m hungry.”

“I’m bored.”

“And _I’m_ Minseok.” Minseok scoffs, stopping (which stops everyone else because he’s up front) and glaring at the complainers. “It’s literally been an hour. Maybe a little more. Shut the fuck up.”

Several groans.

Yet despite who complains, begs, or threatens to jump off the cliff, nobody actually stops progressing. It’s tacit among the team to get as far as possible, at least until RF directs them otherwise. Or something suspicious is seen, but it’s rather hard to find conspicuity when everything looks the same and is shadowed in deep abysses to either side of the walkway, the harsh lighting making everything else fifty-fifty a shadow or an actual rock. Hence, the pace only picks up and the talk gets quieter and quieter. The latter isn’t exactly something bad.

It is only now he begins to kind of appreciate what Minseok has done to – not _for;_ that’s too generous – him. When Chanyeol announces that three hours have passed of them simply traveling, he reflects and realizes he has sat down without any major leg pain. In fact, he doesn’t even feel sore. This has nothing on the hours long runs he’d do on the ship, sweating and struggling to breathe and trying to not cry. Compared to that, this is a peaceful walk on the beach. Or a peaceful walk on a foreign planet where, at the end, he’ll find the key to saving the universe which might actually just be destroying Earth.

RF pauses them for respite where the landform starts to change and they’re no longer walking on mountains but rather through forests of pure stone (or whatever makes up this planet), wrapped up and around and everywhere like the cave systems RF had shown in the briefing. The only difference is that it’s not as dramatic and everything is still the completely smooth texture. 

“Here, Xing.” Yixing breaks from his stupor to look up at Junmyeon, who is holding a paper cup. He hovers his palm over it to deposit water which comes out as neatly as a faucet. It’s still weird to him. And if all of their powers are pretty consistent with scientific principles, then doesn’t Junmyeon’s water come from his own body or the environment around?

But Yixing figures instead of asking if he’s technically drinking him he just should say, “Thank you.” And relish in the refreshment. He isn’t particularly hot, but it does feel nice on his throat which hasn’t had a drink since what, yesterday? It also does a little to wake him back up.

Junmyeon occupies the rock next to him. They’re finally alone. Relatively, that is. Baekhyun’s about five feet away making faces at a yelling Jongin. 

But Yixing still hears him when he speaks. “I’m sorry about that– them, everything. You know, I would’ve thought they would mature after doing it to Jongdae and Minseok, but here we are.”

“I’m not very–“

“Hey! _Lovers!_ What’s goin’ on?!” Minseok comes out of nowhere, one arm around Junmyeon’s shoulder and the other around Yixing’s. Their ten second getaway of solitude is ended when this attracts the attention of several other members.

“Yo~!” Baekhyun makes his way over, and Minseok responds to Yixing’s glare with a cheeky grin. He also responds to Yixing’s sharp elbow with an even sharper one back. 

“Wassup. Wuz’ good? How are you, Hyung?” Baekhyun turns around and plops himself right in between them, wiggling his butt until Yixing and Junmyeon relent and separate. He holds a fake microphone up to Yixing’s face as he had been doing about three hours ago, slinging an arm around his shoulder. “How’s the mission? Your _first field mission?”_

“More… _aggravating,_ than I thought.” He mutters a spiteful response as he shifts his body away. _What_ does a guy have to do to get some alone time with Junmyeon?!

“That sucks.” He can’t tell if Baekhyun knows that he’s talking about him or not. Suddenly, there’s a hand at his forehead, lithe fingers playing with the part in his hair. “How cute. What made you decide on your attire today, Yixing?”

He pushes Baekhyun’s arm away before answering tersely, “What I was given.”

“Ah, I see. So you’re a–“

Yixing tunes out of the conversation when he’s distracted by a solemn Kyungsoo. He’s sat on a rock next to Jongin with a cup of water from Junmyeon. When Jongin says something to him and doesn’t get any reaction, Jongin’s happy face falls and Yixing feels a pang of guilt. He knows it’s because of him.

He wonders, is Kyungsoo actually going to continue? Now that his only partner is gone? In all honesty, although Yixing wasn’t as useful as Kyungsoo himself, he was still an intelligent brain and a second language and moral support. Would Kyungsoo give up if RF started to corner him like she had Yixing? Yixing would’ve thought so, given their similar character, but after last night, everything he said, the ambition in his eyes and certainty in his voice, he’s not so sure… And if Kyungsoo continued and died? God, Yixing wouldn’t know what to do with that kind of feeling.

Kyungsoo’s argument to keep going was infused with emotion while Yixing’s with facts. He doesn’t like that Kyungsoo argued that way, with things like _it’s the right thing to do_ and _we’re both scared but I’m sucking up my fear so and I’ve had it worse than you anyway that makes my argument correct._ Even if Yixing had, in those moments, lost a lot of admiration he had for Kyungsoo’s mind, he still doesn’t want him to be in danger. He wishes Kyungsoo would just give it up and stop looking so he’s safe. He hasn’t seen Kyungsoo look this out of it in the last three months.

They’re such similar people but they made such different choices. Why?

_“Yah.”_

A slap on his arm. Yixing turns to Baekhyun innocently. 

“I was talking to you.” His lips thin and Yixing realizes Junmyeon and Minseok are looking at him too.

After a couple moments of trying to make eye contact with three people at once and giving up, Yixing just says, “Okay.” Because apparently he’s supposed to say something and that’s all he can think of.

A scoff from Baekhyun. “Can you believe this dude? Got the attention span of a goldfish. Junmyeon-hyung, with all due respect, _why–“_

“Agents!” Cue the flinches and screams (and Jongdae smacking Chanyeol), “Your break is over. However, I have reasonable suspicion that SE_1 may be found here. So, instead of continuing to Base 1, the target destination, you will search around this area. Agent D.O will hand out the equipment for the element. Remember the following. One: wear gloves and goggles. Two: lever substance into capsule via fork. Three: wait for beep and green rim. If you find it and need a reminder, go into the community channel and ask. Agent Lay,” Yixing’s heart suddenly speeds up even though he’s cut ties with Kyungsoo. It’s just habit, he tells himself. “I should have told you this earlier, my apologies. The microphone’s three option switch includes: top: private channel with me. Middle: off. Bottom: community channel with me and all of the agents.” Oh. That’s helpful.

“You are to split up into groups of threes. I do not care how you are sorted, as long as every party has three.”

Once Yixing is done processing all of this, he stands and immediately looks to Junmyeon. His heart stings a little when it’s Junmyeon and _Sehun_ that are looking at each other, but then the sting goes away when they subsequently look to him (though they both look at him in _very_ different manners).

“Yixing and Sehun!” Junmyeon cheers in the most adorable way to which Yixing melts and Sehun narrows his eyes.

“Why isn’t it two? She always makes it two. I don’t want three.” Sehun heads over and takes Junmyeon’s arm, looking Yixing up and down. But Yixing won’t be passive aggressive back. He’s above that.

 _“Maybe_ because there’s an odd number of people.”

Junmyeon senses the tension. “Guys–“

“Jongin only counts as half a person. Same with Chanyeol. So there’s eight.”

“That makes no–“

“Hey y'all!” Baekhyun interrupts the intense eye contact. He has one arm around Jongdae’s shoulder and another around Minseok’s. They both have their arms crossed and are facing opposite directions. “So they’re kind of in a conflict–“

Jongdae sighs exasperatedly, “It’s _not_ a conflict, it’s a _lie–!“_

“The grease-stains on your fingers said otherwise!”

“How can you even _tell_ when they were literally _inside–“_

 _“Ahem!”_ Baekhyun smiles politely, elbowing Jongdae. “Anyway, they’re fighting, so I’ll trade one of ours for one of yours. We offer our least favourite, Minseokie-hyung.”

Sehun gets to it before he does, “And we offer _our_ least favourite.” And Yixing is shoved forward.

Junmyeon at least attempts, “Sehunnie, that’s not–“

“Deal!” Before Yixing even realizes it, Minseok’s with his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s friend who hates him and he’s in a bro-hold.

But, to be honest, he’s not all that upset. From just thirty seconds interaction, he knew that being with Sehun and Junmyeon at the same time was a recipe for tension. Besides, he can spend time with Junmyeon later, after the mission; any _other_ time when he’s not with his brat of a friend. At least Baekhyun and Jongdae are straightforward about what they want. Though, Yixing’s not particularly looking forward to the–

_“AYE! TOSS ME ONE OF ‘EM BIG BOYS!”_

The noise.

Baekhyun removes his arms from his and Jongdae’s shoulders and runs over to a whole _table_ Yixing just realized is there. He takes a glance at Jongdae (whose eyes are narrowed at someone behind him) before following in Baekhyun’s path.

He has no idea how, but Kyungsoo has erected a good-sized metal stand that dips down in three sections. The leftmost one holds the safety equipment: gloves and dumb looking goggles, the middle holds large two-forked tools, and the right has capsules lined up in it, each about the side of one of those water jugs in the sports commercials. Perhaps this is the work of some sort of shrinker and un-shrinker? (Again, _how?!,_ but at least he can fathom the idea of it).

EXO does the most civil thing they have since last dinner and get into a line, Kyungsoo working as a kind of vendor and giving each person the equipment. Yixing angles behind Chanyeol’s tall shoulder so he can look at him without being seen. Maybe it’s not in his best interest to watch Kyungsoo going about in a depressed manner and feel even worse about himself, but he can’t help it.

Yixing even becomes a little nervous when he’s being handed his things, aware of how Kyungsoo doesn’t spare him a single glance and keeps his eyes down on the materials. It’s three quick interactions but it feels like forever with something, he doesn’t know what to say but _something,_ on the edge of Yixing’s lips. When he’s handed the container, Kyungsoo lets go a little too quickly and it clanks to the ground. It seems to be only Yixing that notices, as Kyungsoo’s already two feet away handing Minseok goggles.

Said goggles are tan and remind him more of ski goggles than something he’d wear in his high school biology glass. He hooks them around his neck and the forked tools on his belt loops and sucks his stomach in to tuck his gloves in the belt without actually having to take off the belt because that’s just extra work. The capsule doesn’t have any kind of handle so he just crosses his arms around it.

“Alright, everyone!” Junmyeon raises his voice to silence everyone. Despite being the ‘lamest’ person in EXO, everybody’s attention snaps to him. “So, seeing as there are three groups, let’s split north, east, and west, since we just came from the south. Alright?”

“Let’s go north!” Jongin beams to an also beaming Chanyeol. “Let’s find Santa Claus!”

Everyone starts talking again so Yixing can’t tell what Chanyeol says to Kyungsoo as he puts a hand on his shoulder, but he sees Kyungsoo bristle in response. The juxtaposition of a group heads on what would be the continuation of the trail. Junmyeon, Minseok, and Sehun head to the right, east, he’s pretty sure, and then Yixing’s left with Baekhyun and Jongdae and the table.

“–and if we find dinosaurs, we gotta keep them alive, bro. We can’t have the same thing happening here that happened on Earth.”

“But Dae, I’m pretty sure it was a _meteor_ that wiped them out. We can’t stop that.”

“Says who?”

“… Shit, you right. Let’s save the dinosaurs!”

“Yah, Yixing-hyung… _universe to–“_

“What?” Yixing tears his gaze from the north direction, turning to Baekhyun.

“Why are you so out of it today?” Baekhyun’s eyes narrow and Jongdae’s brows raise in curiosity.

“I am out of it every day.” He says and they laugh though he’s not exactly joking.

“Yeah, I know, but you look, like, _depressed,_ or something.” Baekhyun leans in.

Jongdae’s head pops up on Baekhyun’s shoulder. _“And_ you said something about being in a bad mood earlier. What’s up?”

“I just didn’t sleep well. But anyways,” Yixing turns from the questioning and begins in the west direction, wiping any expression off his face and refocusing his mind on the current situation. _Stop thinking about Kyungsoo._ Fortunately, he’s followed, though it quickly changes to him being the one following. He looks to Jongdae, who no longer holds any glare or hatred as he had for the past couple weeks after his fight with Minseok. Perhaps he hasn’t really interacted with Jongdae in quite a bit, but it’s still a bit jarring, everything’s automatically good since Minseok and him are ‘even’? They’re not, but he decides to ignore that. He won’t make a big deal out of anything if Jongdae won’t. “Jongdae, why are you and Minseok fighting?”

Baekhyun snickers and Jongdae rolls his eyes. “We’re _not._ Well, we _shouldn’t_ be.” He replies as if they’re friends. “He’s just trigger-happy when it comes to his food and there were these rangoons the other day that I _didn’t even know about_ until he asked me who ate them.”

Yixing would beg to differ that Minseok’s trigger-happy when it comes to _everything_ (but obviously he doesn’t). “Well, did you eat them?”

 _“No!_ It was literally Jongin. He eats everyone’s shit because he knows he gets away with it because he just teleports and can hide the evidence really well.” Yixing’s pretty sure he has a memory of Jongin _not_ hiding the evidence really well but his mind’s too tired to go and remember what it was. “But Minseok thought it was me _just_ because I like rangoons and _just_ because when I was fing–“

“T-M-I.” Baekhyun interrupts, sticking his tongue out.

Jongdae scoffs. “Like you don’t talk about sex all the time.” And unfortunately Yixing now knows what that sentence was going to be.

“But it’s gross when it’s _you,_ ugly. _”_ Baekhyun makes an act of vomiting and Yixing actually finds himself smiling.

“You’re just jealous because you have no one to bone.” Jongdae makes an act of wiping a tear and Yixing actually finds himself laughing. “Poor B-B-H, _all awone on da ship_ _with just his wight hand~”_

“Bitch, _both_ hands. I’m ambidextrous.”

“Yeah, _both_ hands, just like how you’re into _both_ genders."

“I’m gonna kill you. Fucking bi-phobe, you’re the scum of the universe, I’ll eliminate you.”

“They hated Jesus because he told them the truth– _YAH!_ Don’t hit your lord and savior!”

As this kind of thing continues, Yixing half zones out because it’s funny – when they’re not making fun of him – but it’s not completely engaging. However, he keeps his thoughts as far from RF and Kyungsoo and his procrastinated work as possible and instead focuses on the terrain of the place. He finally takes his mother’s scolding to _get off that damn phone and appreciate nature._ It’s not that hard because A) there is no damn phone and B) the nature isn’t something he has been surrounded by for so long that it’s uninteresting. Though, he will admit, Earth’s nature is a lot more detailed than this, but this is a new planet so he will give it a break.

It’s not extremely pretty, but rather extremely weird. It reminds him of an optical illusion, how sharp the shadows are and how they seem to bend midair. It’s not long before he realizes they actually _do._ This makes everything more difficult to navigate, but he has Baekhyun and Jongdae a step ahead of him to trip on everything so he doesn’t have to (“This planet is trying to kill me! Literally _everything_ is discriminating me!” “It’s discriminating _against_. Use your words correctly, idiot.” “And now you’re ableist?!”).

He notices a strange pattern of direction. Whenever they go downwards into the cave system, it never ends up getting darker or deeper, but rather them finding themselves somewhere high, looking at the sky again. At first he blames it on his fatigue, but when they do this three times and each time they end up on some sort of cliff, Yixing switches the mic to the community channel because he figures others might be wondering the same.

“RF,” He stops silently to try to get Baekhyun and Jongdae’s dialogue out of his range, but they end up catching it and stopping right there as well. “Question. Why do we keep ending up on the surface when we’re going down?”

RF answers immediately, like she had been next to him the whole time. “Planet #1563 is flat, like an oval disk. You keep weaving through the planet. Gravity pushes downwards on either side, and is sideways on the edge.”

Oh, that’s cool. It does mean he isn’t able to jump off the planet, though.

Suddenly, more voices enter the chat.

“Hi guys!” Jongin says a little loudly, but there isn’t any volume button so Yixing just suffers.

“AYE, wassup!” Baekhyun’s voice doubles.

 _“He-hewwo?!”_ Jongdae calls in a high-pitched voice, sniffling loudly. It honest-to-Randomness sounds like for a moment he’s actually crying, so Yixing looks over but Jongdae is smiling (so there _is_ a really good actor here?!).

Baekhyun snickers, joining in with a less convincing whine, hyperventilating between every word. _“He-hewwo?! Pwease somebody hewp us! We– we been abdwucted!”_

“What?!” Junmyeon’s concerned voice comes in. “Guys, what’s–“

 _“Da– da awiens are gonna kill us! Pwease! Heww– AH!”_ Along with the sudden yelp Jongdae flicks his mic, the feedback of the hit nearly rendering Yixing deaf. Baekhyun takes that and runs with it, closing his fist around the mic and yelling in the background of the deafening crush that drowns out all of the other sudden voices.

 _“Pwease! They– they just hit Dae! Pwease somebody hewp us!”_ And Jongdae lets out with a blood-curdling scream that overpowers all the mic crushing. 

It’s kind of funny (though a bit painful), but then when Yixing sees the two of them making ridiculous faces and gestures, it’s _really_ funny (and still painful).

However, RF thinks otherwise. Suddenly, in the midst of Jongdae’s _Nononono!,_ his voice drops in volume to a couple feet away.

 _“Agent Hyunee and Agent Chen have been muted in the community channel.”_ A non-humanlike robot voice reports and the hushed snickers erupt in laughter. This includes Yixing.

RF comes in, “Agents Hyunee and Chen, this is a _permanent_ mute. From now on, to communicate with me, you are to use the private channel. Again, everyone, the community channel is not for messing around.”

Jongdae’s doubled over and Baekhyun is too until he staggers to Yixing, practically falling on his shoulder as he leans in to grab a hold of his mic.

_“MWESSING AWOUND?! MA’AM WHY AWE YOU DOING THIS TO US PWEASE WE ARE DYING–“_

“Agent Lay I suggest you turn your mic off unless you want to be muted as well.” RF warns but Yixing’s too busy losing his balance and then him and Baekhyun are on the ground laughing and hopefully he didn’t just break his capsule and _god dammit_ it wasn’t even that funny until they started laughing and now he can’t stop and–

“Yixing, shut your damn mic off, no one wants to hear you laughing.” He’s pretty sure it’s Sehun and that just makes it ten times funnier, though Yixing does try to turn it but all he ends up doing is bending the wire so he just wraps a fist around the mic until he calms himself.

Though he’s still laughing when he sits up, giving a, “Sorry, sorry,” before switching the button back to the middle.

There’s a sudden wave of nostalgia that comes with that feeling of calming laughter, the lump at his throat and the ache in his abdomen and the smile still tugging at his cheeks. It was back in his earlier teenage years, the ones where he’d be on Discord or Skype calls with Namjoon and perhaps some other online friends playing some kind of game and he really doesn’t know why, but something, even just someone moaning into their mic with a dumb voice or sending a warped image to the chat, would just be _so_ funny that they'd all be laughing their asses off until it was hard to breathe and Yixing didn’t even care if his mother confronted him (because it’d be three in the morning).

It reminds him that he’s still with people. Baekhyun’s real. Jongdae’s real.

“Hey!” Baekhyun’s eyes light up and he points at Yixing, who puts his hands up defensively. “You’re smiling! You weren’t, like, at _all_ today. Did I just cure your depression?”

Yixing’s eyes narrow, though he’s still smiling as he shakes his head, “I hate to burst your bubble, but you’re the cause of it.”

Baekhyun’s jaw drops as Jongdae barks out another laugh. “Say that again. I dare you. I’ll give you a big fat smooch.”

“You, Byun Baekhyun, are the bane of my exist–“

Yixing’s suddenly tackled and something wet smacks against his forehead with a big _“MUAH!”,_ and shit, he wasn’t actually _expecting_ him to follow up on that, so he just stares a bit wide-eyed and then, for some reason, Baekhyun momentarily adopts a similar expression before getting off him.

“You asked for it.” The flash of fluster is gone from his face, “Now tell me, are we happy?”

To avoid another smooch, Yixing mutters a, “Yes.” Except that he mutters it while still smiling and he actually is kind of happy right now.

That sticks on Yixing’s mind as they get up and continue the search: he actually is kind of happy right now. Though he’d hate to admit it during the first couple weeks – or even month – of being here, these guys actually are a source of happiness. It’s moments like that, when Junmyeon smiles in that defeated way after he loses an argument, when Kyungsoo shut that glass door on him and started making faces, when Jongin gave him a three-minute hug after he found him a bag of cheetos, when Baekhyun and him had that genuine conversation while they both avoided cleaning, when Sehun cuddled up to him last night… it’s moments like those Yixing doesn’t totally despise being part of EXO.

The dynamic isn’t like anything Yixing’s ever seen before. Although there are clearly some closer than others, like Baekhyun and Jongdae who Yixing can’t tell whether they exchange more insults or compliments, or Chanyeol and Jongin who spend almost every free moment they have attached at the sides, versus something like Minseok and Kyungsoo who both for the most part ignore each other, or Sehun and Jongin whose aversion doesn’t need to be explained, there’s some sort of underlining connection they all have with each other. Despite the amount of perceived friendship or deliberate interaction, Yixing has observed that everyone knows, in one way or another, just about everyone down to their core. Realistically, it’s the result of being cooped up for years on end with absolutely no choice but intimacy to become second nature. They need each other. _They._ Yixing’s not sure if he’s a part of this, can be a part of this.

But does betraying Kyungsoo for RF also mean he’s betraying all these people and all those moments like they had never mattered? _Had_ they mattered? He made the safe choice, the one that would keep him alive, but maybe… was it the _best?_ Is it best that Yixing sides with what is sure to keep him alive rather than what keeps him wanting to be alive? But _do_ they make him feel that way? Yixing’s sure RF doesn’t make him happy. Even if she protects him, all he feels is the indifferent appreciation towards the robot. And EXO, the members, he’s pretty sure they make him happy…

 _But even so,_ Yixing reminds himself, _you can’t feel_ anything _if you’re dead._

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

He, Baekhyun, and Jongdae return to the crux of the landform change to find that they’re the last ones. Figures, since Baekhyun and Jongdae had insisted they dig out a very large bone because ‘shit I think we missed our chance to save them dinosaurs!’, except that the bone was actually just a rock. One that was thrown at Yixing after he made fun of them. And then used as a weapon to chase Yixing because he had dodged the projectile. The rest of their search was basically a whole hide-and-seek game that RF caught onto about an hour later (“Agent Lay. It seems there is a pattern in your group’s conduct. However, it confuses me. Why do I continue to observe that Agent Hyunee and Agent Chen’s locations chase or gravitate towards yours in a manner that suggests pursuit?”). Yixing answered honestly and got reprimanded, but, quite frankly, he doesn’t care; it’s been so long since he’s had such immature fun.

The other parts of the search, however, were as fruitless as could be. It occurred to Yixing about ten minutes after Baekhyun and Jongdae were muted and they were directed to continue, eyes scouring the same smooth mauve texture that seemed to never end for something that is supposedly colorless and releases steam, that this SE_1 was going to be very difficult to find. It occurred to everyone else about three hours later when they began to complain and RF gave in and sent them back to here to ‘reenergize’.

Everyone is seated in something of a circle and, as Yixing quickly notices, munching on something too small to make out. He discovers what when Kyungsoo heads over to them, three rubick’s cube sized blocks of foil in his hands. He doesn’t say anything as he basically tosses it to the each of them, trading it for their SE_1 tools.

“Hey, Kyungsoo,” Jongdae says and Kyungsoo, who had already turned around to leave, freezes. He turns slowly, looking straight at Jongdae and raising a brow in question.

“You okay, man? You look a little…”

“Shitty.” Baekhyun finishes. Except that he’s not actually finished because he goes on to say, “Like you caught your wife cheating on you with your dog.”

At this, Jongdae snorts and elbows him, which makes Baekhyun snickers and Kyungsoo turns back around and leaves. Not even a scoff or a glare; he just gives up.

As Yixing unwraps the cube (to something that looks like tofu but pleasantly tastes like vanilla) and goes to sit in an open spot between Minseok and Junmyeon, he watches Kyungsoo closely. He has sat back down next to Jongin, but Jongin talks to Chanyeol on his other side and Kyungsoo picks up and stares at a tinfoil ball of what must have been his dinner. At one point, he notices that Jongin’s arm starts to rub up and down Kyungsoo’s back, but neither Jongin or Kyungsoo make any acknowledgement to it.

“Hey, Yixing,” The voice his attention immediately. Minseok’s gesturing to the half-eaten cube in his hand. “Know what that’s for?”

“Energy?” Yixing doesn’t know what he’s getting at. Nor what made him lose interest in what he and Sehun were talking about. Maybe because Sehun’s now talking to Jongdae. But Yixing should be the last resort.

“Well, _yeah,”_ Minseok smiles, “but it does more than that. You’ll soon notice that you’ll only have to pee for the next couple days, because it converts everything in your digestive system to liquid. And also, since it’s your first time with it, you might get a stomachache.”

“Okay.” That’s actually really cool. And useful. Except for the stomachache part.

Fortunately, the interaction doesn’t have to last very long, because right when Minseok gets the look on his face that he doesn’t know what to say because Yixing had replied as bland as ever, RF speaks.

 _“AGENTS!”_ And now Minseok gets the look on his face like he just shit himself despite the cube’s function (not that Yixing doesn’t look like that as well). “Because you are humans that have a specific manner of charging, you will proceed into an idle period of twelve hours. You will be split into four groups, again, I do not care how, and will each have three hour watches and nine hour rests. During the watches you will remain outside of your tent unit and during the rest periods I expect you to be sleeping. Once you split yourselves into groups, I will assign the watch order.”

The subsequent prompt of _Any questions?_ has everyone standing up and beginning to sort themselves. Yixing is still thinking about _tents?_ and _I wish I only needed to sleep every other month like those aliens that would be nice_ and _if all of my food will be liquid does that mean I will take a like two minute long pee_ when his arm is grabbed, and then there’s Junmyeon with a smile on his face. Of course, Sehun at his other side isn’t smiling, but it’s fine. Yixing will be asleep anyways. But also _will_ he have a two minute long pee?

Baekhyun and Jongdae have paired themselves together, while the latter’s boyfriend looks a bit lost as everyone pairs around him. However, he’s not the only misfit. Chanyeol, after looking helplessly to Jongin who’s latched onto Kyungsoo, finds Minseok and they combine.

It’s a couple moments of standing and RF says, “Actually, I have changed my mind. I do care how you pair yourselves. Agents Hyunee and Chen, please separate.”

 _“Wha?!”_ Baekhyun sputters, switching his mic to the top function and the rest of the conversation is one-sided. “Um, _no way,_ bitch _… no!_ We _will_ sleep! I promise!... well _that_ was cause– yah– yah, shut up, _you_ don’t know what was going on in there… you can’t split up _true love!”_

Jongdae does something of the similar at the same exact time, “RF, we’ll sleep, promise… just because we didn’t last time doesn’t mean we won't again… I’ll make sure of it…”

“The _verdict,”_ RF reenters the community channel and Baekhyun explodes in incoherent swearing while Jongdae tries to shout over RF, which makes RF raise volume, _“is that Agents Hyunee and Chen will separate. I would pair Agent Chen with Agent Xiumin, but in respect for the current emotional conflict, I direct Agent Chen and Agent Xiumin to switch places. Your new groups should be Hyunee, Xiumin, and Chen, DohBi.”_ Baekhyun and Jongdae grab hands and make a melodramatic scene of being torn apart, though Minseok and Chanyeol five feet away are just staring.

All their noise (and it’s just the _two_ of them, remember) makes it a bit difficult to hear the rest. “Agents Hyunee and Xiumin will take the first watch. Agents Suho, Lay, and Xuanxu will take the second. Agents D.O and Kai will take the third. Agents Chen and DohBi will take the fourth. Please _sleep_ during your rest periods. I do not expect any trouble during the watches. It is more for precautionary measures. However, if you need me, I am here. The rest period begins now. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, hope you die in your sleep, electro pussy.” Baekhyun spits into the mic, then doing one of those _what-are-you-looking-at_ faces at Minseok who gives him a judgmental stare.

Minseok just shakes his head looks around the group. “Who’s got the… oh, Soo! Over here!”

Instead of any tents magically appearing like the table, there are instead four small sphere balls Kyungsoo has – somehow – acquired. He rejects Minseok’s offer of a toss and he goes over and hands it to him. Chanyeol and Junmyeon leave their respective groups to go get them.

“What’s that?” Yixing asks when Junmyeon returns. As if sensing his curiosity, Junmyeon holds it up for him to look at.

“It’s the tent.” He answers casually. He’s talking about the black marble ball in his hand. It looks like a miniature version of the pods.

And he’s kidding, right?

Apparently not. Simply chuckling at what must’ve been his doubtful expression, Junmyeon tosses the object a bit away from him like some sort of pokéball. And, _like some sort of pokéball,_ it suddenly opens up into two halves. He’s pulled back by Junmyeon as the sphere keeps decomposing yet growing larger and larger. Quadrilaterals expand and unfold as they create a decently sized rectangle, then unfolding walls and a ceiling to what looks like a smaller version of the Pods. It’s made of the same black glossy material, but it’s a large cube. Additionally, like the interior at Exoplanet, it’s also veined with lines everywhere. Yixing looks around because _is he hallucinating_ and sees that _no he is not hallucinating_ because everyone else has the same structure up as well. It’s barely a head taller than Minseok. Chanyeol’s _taller_ than it. As soon as Minseok opens the door, all of the lines light up a vivid red. When he and Baekhyun enter and it shuts, all of the lights blink twice and then fade to something dimmer.

Now that’s awesome.

“Yixing~” He turns to the beckon, realizing Junmyeon had been doing the same exact thing behind his back. He’s currently sticking his head out the door, waving him in.

Also like the interior at Exoplanet, it has the same look as the private dormitories, except much smaller. It’s very minimalistic. In the center are three single-sized beds, practically touching each other and stretching from the back wall to about three-fourths the floor’s length. They each hold a grey comforter with a white pillow. With the very little room left on the sides, there are storage compartments and a bunch of buttons on the top of them. Then that’s really it. Everything is dimly lit from the red lines and a warm-hued light from the top.

Standing here, Yixing feels like a cramped giant, so he sits on the bed on the far left because he prefers corners and hates the right direction. Junmyeon comes back from whatever he was doing outside and shuts the door, going towards the middle with a look to Yixing except Sehun then rolls from the right side to the middle.

“Mine.”

As if he doesn’t know what Sehun’s intention is, Junmyeon smiles, “Alright,” and then heads away from Yixing. Yixing pretends not to notice as he unties the hightops and takes off the jacket, stretching to put them into the storage compartment without actually having to get up. He’s about to lay down but then realizes that the gun and knives and bullets on him aren’t exactly comfortable so he also removes his belt and adds that to the small bucket.

“–three hours.” Junmyeon is saying, Yixing looks up to see him touching his eyeballs and _what_ and oh his contacts, “So I can wake up first and do an hour and then wake up whichever one of you wants to go next.”

“Yixing-hyung does.” Somebody who is not Yixing-hyung says, but Yixing-hyung doesn’t really care.

“Okay.” He lies down on his back, then leaning a bit towards Sehun to slip under the covers. The mission attire isn’t the best sleepwear, but the bed, as usual, accommodates. In fact, the comforter is actually really soft on this side, so Yixing decides to unbutton his shirt so his chest can feel the plush. In contrast to his habitual stomach, he’s going to have to sleep on his back so his hair doesn’t get messed up, but it’s not a big deal.

Only when Yixing finally focuses does he notice that he sees _stars._

Unbeknownst to him, the whole roof has turned into some kind of glass. The yellow light had left and now he can see the night sky he had been looking at all day. It reminds him of camping but Yixing can’t remember the last time he went camping (was it six years old? Seven? Or was it just a random dream he somehow remembers and he actually has never been camping?).

“Hyung,” Sehun says, “do you think RF really meant it? When she said we’re close to finishing?”

“Well, I imagine so. She’s got no reason to lie, and we _have_ been here for a very long time. Especially Minseokie and I.“

 _She’s got no reason to lie._ It seems that never in a million (four) years would any of these guys (the alive ones) suspect RF. It seems that they genuinely view her as a protective deity. Maybe Yixing was a bit like that in the beginning, because it was amazing to see such technology that wasn’t evil, but then his wrist was burned and he investigated and, lo and behold, such technology was evil. It seems RF is part of EXO’s strong bond. She has been there every day as well.

Yixing wonders how everyone here would react if they retained the knowledge he has: RF’s trying to destroy Earth and she killed Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao. Even now, it still sounds ridiculous to him, but so does having a power. In other words, Yixing, with all the reluctance in the universe, believes it. He believes it from the anxiety in Kyungsoo’s eyes when explaining it and the fear in his voice when he told RF he would stop. It’s not too far-fetched that RF wants to destroy humanity. In fact, it’s actually less far-fetched than saving the universe.

Yixing wonders what the unfathomable reality will be like. There are several possibilities: an infiltration process, blunt force, an army. Perhaps someday in the near future Namjoon will be scrolling on Reddit and see an advertisement of _RD_06, Your Smartest Best Friend!_ and he’ll buy it (to see if it’s smarter than his dead best friend) and love it and then one night, when everyone owns an RD_06 and keeps them at their bedside, Namjoon’s throat will be slit by his robot best friend? Or will, one day, Namjoon finally look up from his phone and see that the sky is full of marble black orbs, a fighter jet he has never seen before shooting missiles and explosions with elements that cause damage he couldn’t even imagine. Or will Namjoon simply not suspect anything until in the span of one moment everything he ever knew explodes?

And as to the ones up here in space, what’s nine more murders amongst seven billion and three?

The thought of inescapable perish gives a nauseous feeling in his stomach, one he’s sure isn’t the food. He tunes back into the conversation.

“–Well, yeah, I know. But it’s different.” Sehun’s saying.

“How so?” 

“Just is.”

_“Just is?”_

“Yep.”

“Whatever you say, Sehunnie.” Junmyeon’s voice is mirthful. Sehun adjusts in his bed. One of them lets out a yawn. One of them is saying his name.

“Yixing, you alright?” At the question, he breaks from his trance and props himself up on an elbow. Junmyeon’s sitting against the wall and Sehun’s laying on his back. They’ve both done similar to Yixing and removed their shoes and weapons and jacket (and also socks, weirdos).

“Yes.” Yixing answers, not really sure why he’s asking. “Why?”

“You’ve been zoned out for the last ten minutes.”

 _“Yeah,”_ Sehun then sits up, not caring to cover his yawn and subsequent not-good breath as he stares at Yixing. His face. It looks like he’s trying to find something.

Then, he says slowly, “Hyung, I _still_ don’t get why you like him. There’s nothing going on in his head. He’s like… static.”

Yixing’s painfully reminded of comments of the similar given back in the day when his mother had friends. _Jiaxun, don’t you think your son always looks a little… lost? Jiaxun, no offense, but I’d recommend you test him for autism. Jiaxun, dear, what do you mean your son’s very smart? There’s clearly nothing going on in that little noggin!_

This time, however, Yixing doesn’t think biting the offender is the best course of action (the loss of his mother’s friends may have not been one hundred percent his mother’s fault…), so instead he takes advantage of Sehun’s proximity and flicks him on the forehead.

“Ow!” Sehun retaliates and swings at him, but Yixing anticipates it and catches his arm. He – doesn’t bite it and – uses it as leverage to kick Sehun in the chest, sending him back into Junmyeon.

It’s all on the beds or the inches in between that are covered with blankets, so it’s a harmless act, but Sehun certainly doesn’t think so by the way he dramatically throws an arm over his forehead and looks up at Junmyeon. “Did you see that?! I’m being harassed! Detain this psycho. For our own good.”

“Ah, Sehunnie…” Junmyeon clearly looks like he’s trying not to laugh, “I’m sorry, but I think you deserved that one.”

“I was only being honest!”

“Maybe it seems like there’s nothing going on in my head because you never talk to me.” Yixing kindly suggests. He lays back down on his side, eyes narrowing at the pair. “Usually, you have to interact with a person in order to know what they’re like.” Watching a couple days’ worth of surveillance footage is an option, too, but Yixing doesn’t recommend. Third person sucks, (thinks Yixing).

Sehun entreats a look up at Junmyeon one more time, but Junmyeon just shrugs with a smile. With a scoff, Sehun sits up and cautiously crawls back to his bed. He mirrors Yixing and lays on his side, facing him and folding his hands under his cheek.

His eyes soften slightly as they had the night before. _“Fine…_ What are you like, Hyung?”

“Tired.” Yixing breaks the eye contact and rolls over so he’s facing the wall. “Goodnight.”

Junmyeon bursts out in laughter and there’s a grumble from Sehun and soon after an array of punches to his back, but they’re all soft and end in a quiet, _“Sorry.”_

And by that point, Yixing’s too sleepy to turn over and say something snarky so he hums in response. A couple minutes later his wrist is tugged at, and then his whole arm is being pulled so he’s turned onto his back. At the movement, he opens his eyes, and finds that Sehun has taken an arm from him and an arm from Junmyeon and holds them close to his chest, interlocking a hand with each. Yixing’s heart flutters and there’s a smile that doesn’t go away.

Maybe he knows why Kyungsoo chose what he chose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was looong I am sorry I just did not have any way to split this up.
> 
> Also, if you didn't notice, the outfits are based off one of the power stages (SUCH a shame we never saw real zyx in that) and planet #1563 off of what's depicted in the beginning of the power MV😁
> 
> This was a day late because of that aforementioned length. Also, if you enjoy reading my writing/enjoy this a/u, I have written a Christmas special that is basically a story of one of the EXO's christmases pre-yixing. So expect that!
> 
> And thanks for reading! Have a great week <3


	44. Reversion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Through another sleepless night, Yixing decides to backtrack on the argument of the one before.

**A HUFF** as raw frustration sears through his veins, his chest, the pounding migraine demanding entry into his skull. He feels like he’s going to explode. Yixing can’t sleep again, and why is he so surprised?

Had he really thought leaving Kyungsoo would be the solution to all his problems?

By now, he’ll admit it to himself: he feels bad. _Really_ bad. A subtle itch of guilt has accumulated into a scalding burn of remorse in the span of not even twenty-four hours. Even if he’s right and it’s the best choice to have left Kyungsoo, he shouldn’t have done it like that, yelling and insulting and shattering their friendship.

Yet… _is_ he even right?

Maybe this is what’s not letting him sleep, Yixing decides as he sits up. It’s only been a couple of hours because Junmyeon is currently absent which means it’s the beginning of their watch and their watch starts on the fourth hour of the twelve hour rest. Sehun is sound (literally– Yixing is half tempted to shove a pillow over his snoring face) asleep, remaining so when Yixing slips his hand out of the loose grip. He scoots back against the wall, combing his hands through his hair and dragging them down the side of his face. The starlight from the window above makes his them look pale and lifeless. 

Yixing doesn’t think he was completely wrong, no, he’s never _completely_ wrong, but sometimes there are occasions he makes a small mistake. Perhaps one of these small mistakes is what’s having guilt eat at him every time he looks at his ex-friend and second thoughts about everything invade his mind. Because of these symptoms, plus the whole currently being conscious, Yixing’s exhausted brain decides the best course of action is to review the argument they had and try to pinpoint why he feels so damn bad:

It didn’t even start off good, now that he thinks about it. He was scared to death (lit: vomit) by the previous events and that drove everything, all of the other stress, over the top. He and RF had convinced him into the idea that if he stopped investigating with Kyungsoo, all of this stress would also stop. It didn’t. It hasn’t.

Yixing revealed he had given them away. Kyungsoo had suggested they keep looking and with that figure out how to stop her. Yixing had thought the idea was ridiculous. Kyungsoo made arguments with _it’s the right thing to do_ and _your pain doesn’t matter_ that pissed Yixing off to the point where he lashed out with the names of his dead friends and polarized the disagreement far past civility.

He shouldn’t have done that, he let anger get the better of him. Perhaps his mistake was his lack of maturity. Yixing fell for that sense of reward: saying those terrible things and seeing Kyungsoo’s face chasten in hurt.

That’s what he had done wrong. That’s the little mistake. Therefore, in the near future, he’ll have to go apologize, Yixing decides, before deeming it solved and crawling back under the comforter…

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

But if his mistake was in being an asshole, then why can’t he sleep?

It’s ten minutes of desperation and Yixing reluctantly sits back up, cracking his knuckles and repositioning back against the wall. There’s still something wrong. It’s more than him just being mean.

Yixing once again runs through as much as he can remember of the argument. Yes, bringing in Yifan and Luhan and Zitao and calling Kyungsoo – and them, inadvertently – idiots was something Yixing did wrong, perhaps the revealing of what they had said about Kyungsoo, too, but there is evidently something else.

Yixing revealed he had given them away. Kyungsoo had suggested they keep looking and with that figure out how to stop her. Yixing had thought the idea was ridiculous. Kyungsoo made arguments with _it’s the right thing to do_ and _your pain doesn’t matter_ that pissed Yixing off to the point where he lashed out with the names of his dead friends and polarized the disagreement far past civility.

It had pissed him off because he _hates_ when people justify things like that. He hates when people make up a misleading phrase for obligation, force, you don’t have a choice, because it’s a fucked up system, lying with a euphemism so deified that everybody wants to _do the right thing._

But maybe, Yixing thinks as he looks to Sehun’s peaceful face and remembers last night, _Fine… what are you like, Hyung?, he is actually kind of happy right now,_ _Jongin’s arm starts to rub up and down Kyungsoo’s back, but neither Jongin or Kyungsoo make any acknowledgement to it, it’s something tacit,_ that’s not at all what Kyungsoo meant.

Perhaps Kyungsoo meant, instead of obligation, desire. He _desires_ to keep going. He _desires_ to go against what threatens his happiness and destroy it. Kyungsoo doesn’t want to stop RF out of a terrified _there’s no other choice,_ but out of an aspirant _you’re not going to destroy my home._

Kyungsoo made the choice out of love, not heroism.

Yixing had misinterpreted want for obligation, love for fear, because the latter of both was all that had filled him in those moments. Kyungsoo suggested to keep investigating out of want and love and Yixing followed RF’s orders out of obligation and fear. It makes sense, because Kyungsoo has had more time here to love everybody (and have it returned) and appreciate what he had lost back on Earth. Yixing, though he recognizes both, he strongly likes a few of the people here and misses home, doesn’t feel it anywhere near the extent Kyungsoo does. He doesn’t feel it to the point where he’s willing to risk his life for want and love.

Because again, those are _feelings_ , not _facts._ The fact is that they’re just going to die. It’s not practical.

So overall, Yixing hadn’t looked at Kyungsoo’s perspective thoroughly enough – or at all, really – to assume anything other than he’s an idiot. But Kyungsoo’s not an idiot, he just loves the people here. Yixing shouldn’t have invalidated that and said he was foolish for sticking with it all, even if it’s not in favor of practicality.

That’s what he had done wrong. That’s the little mistake. Therefore, in the near future, he’ll have to go apologize, he decides, before deeming it solved and crawling back under the comforter…

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

But if his mistake was being an asshole and misunderstanding, then why can’t he–

_Beep!_

Yixing jumps as a red light emits from the middle of the far wall, then tracing up and down the split of the doors that slide open. The silhouette of Junmyeon ducks slightly as he enters, pressing something to the side that shuts the doors. As Yixing is currently sitting up with his eyes wide open, it doesn’t take long for,

 _“Yixing?”_ Junmyeon questions in a whisper. His eyes flicker to Sehun for a moment. _“Why are you up?”_

 _“Can’t sleep.”_ Yixing replies at the same volume. It’s too dark to see Junmyeon’s face clearly, as the lights from the room have gone out and at his current angle his hair shadows his face from the starlight. Yixing quickly snaps out of the daze and scoots to the edge of the bed, reaching for the compartment.

 _“I will just take Sehun’s watch for him, I know I won’t get back to sleep.”_ He slips on a hightop. However, as he's going to tie the laces (because they’re the type of shoes that _won’t_ just let you tie them once and be good for the rest of eternity), Junmyeon’s hands get involved and stop him.

 _“Yixing…”_ The name trails off and it seems Junmyeon hadn’t exactly planned ahead of what he wanted to say. A couple moments of trying to make eye contact in the darkness and Junmyeon finally puts together _, “You– well… I don’t want you to be tired… you haven’t been sleeping, you need to sleep… what if I slept with you? Did that help? I can do that.”_

That’s nice, but, _“I still have a watch to–“_

 _“No.”_ He interrupts. _“Not if I take it.”_

That’s also nice, but, _“Then you won’t be in here to sleep with me and Sehun will probably think it’s unfair and I will be disliked further.”_

 _“Not if I take both of yours.”_ Yixing squints to try to see his expression but all it does is make everything darker _. “Look, what if you come with me outside, and we’ll watch together… but it won’t exactly be a problem if you, well, accidentally happened to fall asleep.”_

That’s very nice! But _nothing._

 _“Okay.”_ Is how Yixing, two minutes later, finds himself curled between Junmyeon’s legs and arms with Junmyeon’s chin on his head. One of Junmyeon’s hands is in his and the other on his belt near a gun. Of course, as RF said, nothing is expected to attack (in fact, they have yet to see any form of life here), but precautionary measures are precautionary measures. Maybe it’s a bit painful on Yixing’s tailbone to be half-sitting half-laying this way, but Junmyeon’s secure and he would rather be fully embraced than leaning from a side.

Junmyeon gives about ten different rephrasals of _are you sure you’re okay?_ and Yixing gives about ten same answers of _I’m fine shut up_ and then, like two nights before, everything bad goes away in the warmth of Junmyeon and although Yixing tries to continue sorting everything out, especially since he feels comfortable so he has a bit clearer of a mind, unconsciousness prevails.

_But… if my mistake was being an asshole… and misunderstanding… then why… well, actually…_

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

It doesn’t last long. Several periods of light sleep and hazy consciousness, ultimately nothing substantial, is broken when Yixing’s lifted off the ground. The first thing he sees is a pale neck and chin, and then his gaze drags behind Junmyeon’s arm to see a figure exiting from another one of the tents. Through a daze, he doesn’t exactly register that he and Kyungsoo are making eye contact, but when he’s back inside the tent on the mattress he realizes it and despite the attempts to figure things out he’s still stung with a guilt like no other.

Kyungsoo didn’t look like he had gotten much sleep either.

 _“Sorry for waking you. Are you good?”_ By now, Junmyeon has laid him down, though Yixing’s quickly sitting back up. He has to say something to Kyungsoo. He doesn’t like the looks of contempt and broken friendship. He doesn’t want them to avoid each other for the rest of their lives. He doesn’t like this. Not at all. He–

 _“Yixing?”_ Junmyeon has sat on his own bed, untying his shoes. Yixing realizes he himself only has one on and doesn’t bother to question how that came to be and just slips it off. How is he going to apologize to Kyungsoo? He hasn’t even figured out the real source of his guilt, has he? He still can’t sleep. He still feels stressed. He still–

 _“Are you okay? You–”_

“Yes! My _god.”_ Yixing doesn’t mean to, but a tone of annoyance manifests in the word, immediately eliciting several bouts of regret and frustration and vexation all at once. Junmyeon’s expression falls to something a bit surprised and hurt and he looks to a still sleeping Sehun.

“No–“ Yixing drops to a whisper, frustration rising every second Junmyeon looks like that. Hurt. He needs a place that’s constantly happy and that place is Junmyeon and he can’t ruin it now. _“No. Sorry. I’m sorry, Junmyeon. I’m just irritable. Because of the no sleep.”_

Junmyeon’s still looking to his lap and Yixing scours his brain for the right thing to say. Panic rushes through him and is it okay he gets so scared so fast? Because he loves him, right? That's it. Right? _“I’m– I’m really thankful you’re worrying about me. Seriously. I’m just being bitchy… I love you.”_ Junmyeon looks up and Yixing’s hand darts out to grab his. This will work. Please. _“I’m sorry. I’m just taking out the volatility of exhaustion on you and that’s not fair and now I feel bad because you think I’m upset with you but I’m not. I literally have no reason to be.”_

 _“Oh.”_ Junmyeon lets out a soft breath and picks his head up with a small smile. Relief washes through Yixing. _“Yeah, right, of course… no, it’s okay, Yixing. I know how you feel. It’ll get better, I promise. I love you too.”_

Upon the relief comes the golden feeling at _I love you too,_ and Yixing lays back down and opens his arms. Right away Junmyeon complies, leaning forward and then their bodies melt together like usual, though it’s usually Junmyeon doing the head-kissing and hair-petting. Yixing doesn’t stop running his fingers through the softness until the fear in his chest completely goes away. Junmyeon’s once neat hair becomes a mess of Yixing’s anxiety.

 _“Ah… Xing…”_ A mumble. Junmyeon’s almost directly on top of him, head at his chest and a thigh between his legs. It’s the most weight that’s been on him in a month yet Yixing feels lighter than ever. _“Now it’s gonna be messy…”_

 _“No, it’s fine.”_ Yixing at least tries to put it back into place after the lie. _“Your eyes are not even open. You’re not looking. You can’t see.”_

 _“Mmm…”_ The suspicious hum isn’t followed up with any eye opening, though. Rather, _“You’re still gonna fall asleep like this, right?”_

_“Right. Stop worrying.”_

_“Sorry…”_ A big breath and release, Yixing can hear the foreign heartbeat. It’s an indescribable feeling to be so close to him like this, it’s an indescribable way he’s managing not to melt, to withstand the warmth and comfort and the slow tempt a different hand from last time caresses upon the box.

 _“I miss you.”_

“What?” Yixing’s blood goes cold, because what does he mean? Why would he say that? He _misses_ him? Why? Yet, Junmyeon doesn’t move a muscle, eyes closed and breathing peaceful.

 _“…We’re together every day.”_ Yixing continues at a whisper. _“We live together. How could you miss me? Or did I hear you wrong?”_

Another hum, _“Mmm, just… Never mind.”_

Despite Junmyeon’s messy hair all of the anxiety returns. _“Never mind what?”_

 _“Sorry…”_ A big breath and release, Yixing can hear his own heartbeat. The intimacy breaks when he realizes Junmyeon didn’t answer the question. Junmyeon gave a ‘never mind’. Junmyeon’s… not telling him something? But what could he mean, he misses him? Yixing _lives_ with him. He’s gone to nap with him almost every day now, they couldn’t be any closer, literally. Is he just blindly spilling half-conscious phrases he thinks are supposed to be romantic? He’s done it before (even when conscious). That could be it, right…? That’s it. Right?

 _“You don’t have to miss me,”_ Yixing decides to go along with it, giving another kiss on the head and tracing the sculpt of his face until Junmyeon’s sound(less because he doesn’t snore because once again he is perfect) asleep and the only thing audible is the snoring of _(sound_ asleep) Sehun in the bed over.

Though Yixing may have lied earlier because he doesn’t fall asleep.

Why did he just get so afraid?

For a second, after he had snapped, he was losing the only escape he has. He had brought negativity into the equation of their relationship. Yixing’s not only terrified of RF but he’s also terrified of tainting what him and Junmyeon have with the stress of everything outside of it. It’s been perfection so far and he doesn’t want that to change, he doesn’t want the security of it to be undermined just like it has with everything else.

But is this, perhaps, Yixing wonders, _correct?_

He draws back to the argument of the night before.

Yixing revealed he had given them away. Kyungsoo had suggested they keep looking and with that figure out how to stop her. Yixing had thought the idea was ridiculous. Kyungsoo made arguments with _it’s the right thing to do_ and _your pain doesn’t matter_ that pissed Yixing off to the point where he lashed out with the names of his dead friends and polarized the disagreement far past civility. It had pissed him off because he _hates_ when people justify things like that. However, Yixing was wrong and he misunderstood Kyungsoo, because Kyungsoo really meant that he loves his members and Earth and wants to do what he can to keep them safe…

Even if it taints something perfect.

Yixing looks down to the sleeping Junmyeon, his nose that twitches in what must be a dream, hopefully it’s a good one, his fingers that curl into the fabric of his shirt.

It doesn’t seem Kyungsoo had a hard time believing that RF killed Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao. In fact, he had _suggested_ it. But that was due to the fact Kyungsoo had experienced some individual suspicions with RF before. The burn on his wrist. No one else has that sort of marking on them. Yixing has checked. Multiple times.

But, as he has learned, evidence has the loudest voice and there’d be no other choice, at some point, than to start to believe it.

Yixing glances over at Sehun, trying to imagine what it would be like to tell him that RF_05 is actually evil and is using them to kill their own species and has murdered his friends and he proves it all. Would Sehun cry? Like he had the other week? It was weird to see him cry. How would everybody else react to this? Would Jongin be confused? Minseok scared? Junmyeon… as the leader, overwhelmed? It would taint the idea of safety and perfection in EXO, for sure, but Yixing recalls something Kyungsoo had said:

 _If we’re right, and RF is going to kill us after she’s done using us to destroy our own planet, so we’re just going to be dead no matter what, then wouldn’t you rather die trying to stop her?_

Yixing had said no, because he wasn’t sure, because he refused to believe it, and maybe there’s a kind of internalized hope, with being here for only three months, that he’ll be able to return to Earth. Kyungsoo, and more than likely everyone else here, has grown out of that kind of hope.

Maybe Yixing should, too.

And, putting himself under this mindset, it doesn’t seem too idiotic that he’d rather continue investigating RF and try to stop her. He is, they are, giving up nothing because everything they have known is already gone. They have nothing more to lose so why should they spend their time under a robot dictator in one wristed handcuffs? Perhaps, in this mindset, death isn’t too daunting because they’re already dead to Earth. Some are already dead here. More have tried to be…

Is this how everyone would think if they were told?

Yixing begins to think in the idea of, rather than investigating more and stopping RF alone with Kyungsoo, he still has mixed feelings on that, telling someone else. Although it’ll bring negativity and perhaps endangerment, Yixing is not sure if he can keep all of this a secret for years, or however much longer he has. Maybe it’s putting his well-being over that of others, but if it’s looked at from another lens, he’s actually exhibiting communalism, rather than individualism. According to the ideology, if he tells everyone else, he’s doing good for the whole because he is informing them. And if they’re all abruptly killed someday, they will at least know why. Practicality wise, even if everybody knew, it’s still extremely unlikely they could beat RF and the ever-improving technology she has. Heck, she could simply leave them on this mission and they’d be done for. But maybe, if the same thing happens where the other people make it better and more hopeful despite no material contribution, that wouldn’t be so bad.

Although this would spawn more of a risk (though deep in his mind there’s the thought that maybe _he_ doesn’t have to be the one that gives everything away, it won’t be _his_ fault), it would also spawn more of a strength because strength in numbers. The stress would diffuse among them all. It’s Kyungsoo and Yixing both separated, struggling to carry a large piece of metal versus Kyungsoo and Yixing and Sehun and Junmyeon and Jongin and Baekhyun and Jongdae and Chanyeol and Minseok carrying the same large piece of metal with ease. That’s more practical. Perhaps this is his solution out of the maze– or, at least, out of this certain square.

 _But RF…_ The feeling of being backed against the wall in the mission meeting room resurfaces, and Yixing becomes conflicted (between these two choices– he’s been conflicted for the last forty three chapters). There are positives and negatives to each side and he’s exhausted so he isn’t sure how soon he will be able to reliably sort these and find the best way out. Any more sleepless nights and perhaps he'll forget this too. 

But one thing Yixing knows is that, no matter what the best way out is, he’s going to apologize to Kyungsoo.

Waiting until the morning or after the mission requires a kind of patience he has long lost. It’s about thirty minutes of thinking about what to say to Kyungsoo and mussing Junmyeon’s hair further and he comes to the conclusion that it would be best to talk to him right now, because it’s his – and Jongin's, but he has a feeling they'll be separated – watch and that guarantees they’ll have their privacy. Additionally, there aren’t any bracelets that have to be muted. Only the mics.

He looks down and realizes that his position is a bit of a challenge to escape. Yixing hopes that Junmyeon happens to be a heavy sleeper as sliding out from under him isn’t exactly subtle. Fortunately, even when he has reput on the hightops (and retied them…) and buttoned up his shirt because he realized it has been unbuttoned this whole time and that would make for a _very_ awkward apology, Junmyeon is still sleeping. Just to check, Yixing leans back over him and plants a very necessary kiss on his forehead. Yep. Still asleep. We’re good. Wait, no, one more. Just to make sure.

It takes a moment to locate the square button beside the door. Two quiet _woosh_ es and Yixing is regretting not bringing his jacket because it’s a bit cold. At this time, he notices, the sky is a bit darker and the stars are a bit dimmer, the light source behind the giant planet is angled as to only create a thin glowing ring around its perimeter, but it’s not too big of a disparity to when everyone was awake.

Similar to what Junmyeon had done, Kyungsoo is sat against the black marble tent unit with a weapon of choice. He has a medium sized rifle in his lap that Yixing definitely doesn’t recall seeing him carrying, but that’s not important. What’s important is that Kyungsoo obviously had heard him and is now looking.

Maybe it’s good he’s not saying anything, Yixing thinks as he takes the silence as an opening to – carefully, man’s got a gun – approach. He sits criss-cross about five feet in front of him, a distance good for strangers, and folds his hands on his lap. It’s just as terrifying returning as it was leaving.

“…Hi.” Yixing says because what else does he start with? _Sorry for betraying you haha BT dubs I changed my mind?_

It takes a couple moments of silence, but Kyungsoo replies in a mumbled, “Hi.” He doesn’t look up from his lap, face blank. 

Yixing stops himself from staring too long, that’s not going to do anything but make him feel worse, and gets to the point. “Can we talk?”

Kyungsoo’s head snaps up, malice in his gaze. Enduring the glare is just as nerve-wracking as being with RF, even if Kyungsoo would require significantly more time to kill him. Not that he would. Yixing's pretty sure. “You want to _talk?”_

“Yes.” Yixing lifts a hand up to his cheek where the mic is, wiggling the device slightly in hopes that Kyungsoo means he wants to talk in _private._

“I thought we were _done,_ here.” Kyungsoo says flatly, yet a hand still goes up to his mic. Yixing considers it a win. He also considers it a win that Kyungsoo doesn’t immediately hush him, meaning they _are_ in fact safe. Do the bracelets not listen in because they're too far from the ship? Has he read about this? 

Anyway, “About that…” Yixing gathers those things he was thinking about saying a couple minutes ago and filters out the ridiculous ones _(I have to use the bathroom would you like to come with)_ and consolidates the useful ones _(I am sorry)._ He feels like he’s trying to pet a rabid animal without getting his hand bit off.

 _“What is it?”_ Kyungsoo prompts, clearly on the cusp of annoyance. 

Yixing gives up his filtering and just chooses a good one at random. “Sorry.” He says, then going over that and his tone of voice and repeating kindlier, “I’m sorry about last night. I really am. A lot of what I said was really shitty and I worded it in really rude ways… I was a bit shaken from earlier… and I’ve changed my mind on some things… so I just wanted to...”

It tapers to silence.

 _“…Seriously?”_ Kyungsoo sounds more pissed than surprised. His brows raise in a manner that’s more aggressive than shocked. Yixing almost winces at the way he says it. “You’ve _changed your mind.”_

“Yes… I’ve changed my mind. I actually think–“

“You’re _such_ a fucking asshole.” Kyungsoo spits and Yixing goes quiet. “You tell me you want nothing to do with it and leave me alone to acquaint myself with the fact you just left me to fucking _die,_ that alone I’m gonna fucking _die,_ worst panic attack I’ve _ever_ had, and now you’re here saying ‘sorry I’ve changed my mind’ as if it’s your favourite color and doesn’t affect me what-so-ever? You’re out here all day happy without a care in the universe, fucking around with Baekhyun and Jongdae and cuddling with your boyfriend, _both_ times ignoring your responsibilities otherwise, and you have the _audacity_ to say you’re ‘sorry’ and seriously _expect_ me to believe it?”

Anything Yixing was prepared to say is demolished and he’s left gaping.

As due process in his mind, he goes to refute a point, any point, but Yixing finds himself at a blank. The absolute loathe in his voice, his words, something bound to possess an exaggeration, yet every single thing Kyungsoo said is _true_. Yixing's trying to casually flip back sides as if Kyungsoo's waiting to take him. Yixing's been a stark contrast to his ex-partner who's looked on the verge of passing out all day. At least, Yixing's been such on the surface. How could Kyungsoo think anything else?

 _And the worst panic attack he’s ever had?_ As of right now, finds nothing in Kyungsoo’s expression but hatred, but he does remember the foreign look on his face last night; a weak Kyungsoo he had never met before. It stings even more knowing that when Yixing went through something similar, it was _Kyungsoo_ that _helped_ him.

A horrible feeling clenches his stomach. Absolutely everything in Kyungsoo’s words say: _we’re not friends anymore._ That in the span of one night Yixing gave up all of those power trainings, profound conversations, laughs, Yixing, you’re like the only one I actually relate to here, witty banters, hey, when we go back to Earth, you’re going to eat at my family’s diner, I bet you’ll like Namjoon, the sight of a small bald guy, a little blurry because he’s sweating from Minseok’s routine, coming to save him, don’t be sorry, it’s not your fault, I have them too, when–

 _Stop._ Yixing cuts off the retrospection. He wants to pretend that Kyungsoo’s just temporarily mad with him and the scowl’s only fake. And he needs to explain that he _is_ sorry. He’s only trying to be happy. Pretending to be happy.

“I’m sorry…” The reply comes quietly. He feels defeated and he hasn’t even said everything he wanted to say. “I’m sorry. And no, that’s not true, I do feel bad, I really do. I’m just good at hiding it. I’m just– I was just pretending there was nothing wrong. I feel horrible.”

He only has to look at Kyungsoo to know it hadn’t gotten through.

“You really _do_ take me for an idiot, don’t you? Just because I have some fucking sympathy means I’m an _idiot?_ I should’ve known you were _that_ kind of person. Conceited assholes like you… it seems you’re good at hiding that, too.” Something in Yixing flares at his words, but it’s the kind of frustration that can’t be taken out on someone else because he knows Kyungsoo is right. He _is_ a conceited asshole, isn’t he?

“No, Kyungsoo, that’s not it.” A lump grows in his throat. It’s happened too fast that his close friend has started to say words like these. The worst part is how he’s utterly shocked but has no right to be. What had he expected? Instant forgiveness? Maybe… “I don’t– I don’t take you for an idiot. I didn’t mean that, I was angry and so I said a lot of things I didn’t mean and exaggerated things and said things I shouldn’t have said at all. I said it all because I was scared _._ I am scared. Still. I was scared of what she would do to me if I kept going with you and I didn’t think about everything with a clear head, I was panicked, I’m sorry.”

“I _know_ you were scared. We _both_ are.” Kyungsoo’s voice still has the hateful tone and Yixing tells himself he’s being stupid for feeling hope from Kyungsoo acknowledging his fear. “But anger doesn’t lie. So stop trying to right now. I don’t care how ‘sorry’ you are.”

His heart falls and Yixing feels sudden tears burn at his eyes. “That’s… is that what you really think?”

“Is this all you came to do? Apologize?” The tone suggests he’s pathetic and Yixing’s face heats up as he blinks away the wetness. “If so, you’ve done it. You can go back to sleep.”

Something clicks and he knows it’s hopeless to make amends with Kyungsoo, the horrid sensation amplifies, and he takes a moment just to assure he won’t start crying. If he starts he knows he won’t stop; a _lot_ has accumulated, and everything would just double when it’s in front of who would call him pathetic because what are you crying about? You have _no_ idea what it’s like.

“No.” Because even if he can’t make things up with Kyungsoo, he still has to talk to him about the future.

Yixing gathers himself before continuing, “When I said I changed my mind… I felt really bad after, and I rethought everything I had said, said when I was panicked, and I think I was wrong in some things and I think I’ve changed my–“

“Why didn’t you think _before?”_ Kyungsoo cuts him off. Every harsh word sends another pang of regret. He’s sorry. He really is. “It’s not just a decision you make on impulse. You’re damn lucky we’re on this mission, or we’d never be able to talk about it again. And even so, should I even listen to you? _You’re_ the one who left _me_ all alone. I could just do the same thing right now and not even hear you out. Do you know how hypocritical you are?”

When Yixing is yet again speechless, he goes on, “I always knew you were independent, but I didn’t know you were this fucking _selfish,_ Yixing. God…” Kyungsoo sighs harshly, bringing a hand from the gun to his temple.

Yixing doesn’t yell or snap back at the truth because he knows where that brought him last time, “I know. I’m a shitty person.” It feels strange to outright insult himself out loud. “But, just… just because I’m a shitty person doesn’t mean we can’t solve this.”

Kyungsoo glares. “So it’s a _we_ now?” 

_Please let it be._

“Will you hear me out?” Yixing adds a, “Please?” For extra measure. 

“You don’t deserve it. Especially when you were so close-minded yourself.” Is the reply and Yixing becomes terrified for a moment, is this how they’re going to leave it?, but then there’s, “Go on.”

“Thank you.” He says first, bowing his head slightly (to elicit an even more scrutinous look). 

Nonetheless, the hypocrite continues. 

“So, I am sorry for saying that you were an idiot. You’re not. You just… have sympathy. Like you said. And I’m sorry for talking about them in that kind of way, it was really insensitive. And I am sorry for leaving you alone, which was probably terrifying because it was terrifying with two of us and that’s more than one. And I was really scared too, then. I’m really sorry, Kyungsoo.” The stern countenance doesn’t budge, “But I don’t think I’m wrong. I’m right, in we won’t be able to do anything… _just_ me and you, that is…

“I think the others should know. That’s what I changed my mind on. I think.” When Kyungsoo doesn’t reply, looking rather surprised, even, he elaborates. “I think we should tell them. Some, at least.” If he were to make a list, he would tell the smarter and more composed of the group first: Chanyeol, Minseok, maybe Jongdae. Junmyeon definitely fits into the category, but Yixing feels sick at the thought of laying this burden on him. On one hand, he wants to share the struggle and have him by his side, they could get through it together, but on the other, he doesn’t want Junmyeon to have the same constant anxiety and confusion. Yixing doesn’t want to ruin his escape. “Because although we can’t do anything… maybe more can, I don’t know. I just don’t want to have to hold this in forever.”

Kyungsoo’s expression is still unreadable. He sighs, deflating down in his spot and looking up at him. Yixing quickly finds himself uncomfortable at the eye contact and diverts to his eyebrows. Hairline. It’s fit for a buzzcut.

At last, he speaks. “…That is what I was going to fucking say, you know. That is what the plan you _refused_ to even listen to was.”

…Oh.

A red-hot bout of humiliation overpowers everything else, washing down Yixing’s face that grows red, neck that becomes sweaty, he feels the need to unbutton his shirt even though he was shivering not even five minutes ago. The harder Kyungsoo’s pissed glare gets the hotter he feels. God, he’s such an idiot. He preaches dialectic communication yet here he is, questioning whether he’s about to cry out of regret or embarrassment.

Where would they be now if Yixing had just _listened?_

“Yep.” Kyungsoo must have seen his reaction. Yixing hasn’t been so good at hiding things anymore. “Imagine how frustrated _I_ feel right now. Anyway, as I was _going_ to say last night,” And Yixing had thought Kyungsoo was immature for giving into his sympathies yet here he is, putting everything emotional aside to talk about the problem at hand. Heck, he had even tried to do that last night, but Yixing didn’t let him. It was _Yixing_ who was immature, emotional. Dramatic…

“Everyone. We’ll tell everyone. On this mission.”

 _“What?”_ Yixing gapes, then quickly neutralizing his expression. He does as Kyungsoo and tries as hard as he can to swallow the lump in his throat. “But– but that’ll cause so much chaos. You know how everyone is. They’re either not smart enough to understand, mature enough to accept, or both. Telling everyone now would probably lead to a slip-up or something. Shouldn’t we tell some and wait for others? So it’s controlled?”

“Wait for how long? Wait for _what?_ And _how_ would we tell anyone other than on this mission? Like _you_ said, once we’re back on the ship, RF will be watching out for any technological anomaly.” When there’s no reply, he continues, “Exactly. We need to have as many minds as possible, no matter how weak. And Yixing, I’ve been here for _two years._ You’ve been here for three months. I know _far_ better than you the full extent of this.” 

“The full extent of this?” Yixing repeats, hand subconsciously going to fiddle with his wristband. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you should’ve put yourself in my shoes before leaving me all alone.” Kyungsoo pauses and Yixing’s glared at so he looks down. He picks at the bandage under the wristband. “…I know how different this is, compared to when everything was normal– normal for here _._ It just… feels like something is really coming to climax. You’ve only been here a little while, so it feels too soon for you, or, just, normal for you. Like being scared of this place is normal, when it really shouldn’t be. You haven’t experienced how good it is here, it’s usually great after your first couple months, but it’s also because of that you literally _don’t_ understand how different this is. How bad this is.”

Yixing thinks about that as he lifts up the off-white, re-sticking it on and off until there’s no more stickiness to it (which means the hanging off piece will piss him off later and then he’ll be biting at it; he doesn’t know why he does this to himself). It makes sense, but then, from this, shouldn’t Kyungsoo have a place of sympathy for him? Understand his thinking? Maybe _not_ tell him he’s gone through nothing and he’s being dramatic?

“You’re right. I don’t know how bad it is, at least, compared to what the normal is.” He doesn’t ask. He’ll just take it, because at least Kyungsoo is not leaving him all alone, even if it’s what he deserves. Despite differing opinions, they both want to stop it as much as the other. “But I worry telling everyone in such a short amount of time will cause panic and chaos. Given they even _believe_ it.”

“They'll believe it if you say it right. RF's our leader, sure, but all we truly have is each other." But what _is_ saying it right? Is Yixing even included in _each other?_ "And at first maybe it'll be a bit rough, but it’ll come together. It did with their deaths, and it will this time.” Kyungsoo stops, kicking at a stray stone (that’s perfectly oval, Yixing notices) before his face changes. “But you’ve got a point though. So actually, we’ll tell them one by one. It’s the perfect opportunity, too.”

Yixing drops his wrist, looking up. “As in, finding chances to take them aside and let them know? Like how we’re talking in private?”

“Yes.” It makes Yixing far too happy to have Kyungsoo agree with him. “Obviously, make sure their mics are off. And then say it gently, and in a way they’ll understand. It’s their leader of _years_ you’re talking about. And tomorrow night before rest we can all consolidate and hopefully come up with something.”

“Alright…” Yixing nods, a sudden ball of anxiety growing in his stomach. He's taking action. He's doing what he should absolutely not be doing. “Wait. Who’s going to tell who?”

“Um,” At Kyungsoo’s hesitance, Yixing quickly speaks.

“I’m new. It’s less likely I’ll be believed. I think I should only tell those who trust me.” Which includes two people, one of them being Kyungsoo– actually, maybe just one person.

“Yeah, I guess. So you tell Junmyeon and Baekhyun and Minseok, and I’ll cover the rest.”

Wait, that’s _not_ what he was thinking!

“Baekhyun and _Minseok?”_ Visions of what this would look like play out in his head. Will Baekhyun ever get serious enough to let him get the message across? Will Minseok laugh in his face and call him crazy, and say the remedy to insanity is sprints? Or will they end up in despondent shock and an awkward Yixing having no idea how to respond?

Kyungsoo scoffs. “What, are you _complaining_ now? After _you_ suggested this? After _you_ backed out but then changed your mind all to _my_ mercy? I don’t think you’re in any place to bitch. Especially considering I’m still taking more than you.”

“No– no, I just… worry they won’t…” Yixing gives up. It’s not worth it. “Never mind. Sorry. I’m sorry.”

“You should be.” Is all he says, but at least it’s more than _I don’t believe you._

“Kyungsoo? Is there any way you could ever… forgive me?” He asks, cringing at the entreat. Kyungsoo narrows his eyes. “I– I just really feel bad… I don’t like this, I don’t want you to hate me…” Suddenly, he gets an idea. He thinks of when the roles were switched. What Kyungsoo did in that situation.

“Can… can I give you a hug?”

A scoff so intense it’s a laugh. 

“Are you serious?” Kyungsoo responds and Yixing’s face reddens because _shit_ he had thought that would be sweet and cute. He doesn’t know what to say, and all the blaringly obvious reasons he _shouldn’t_ have said that rush in, he could have just taken two seconds to think this over, why didn’t he just take two seconds to think this over, he lowers his head in embarrassment. He tries with all his will to undo the last five seconds because for the love of god _what_ made him think that was a good idea?!

Another scoff. “You’re saying that like you _expect_ me to forgive you. Just like you _expected_ me to accommodate to your mind-changing transition time like you’re some sort of main character. I hope you understand the only reason I’m talking to you is because there are bigger problems. Not because I think you are redeemable in any way. Now are we _done_ here?”

He’s left open-mouthed once again. How can Kyungsoo get so _mean?_ But at the same time… well, _correct_...

 _“…y-yeah…”_ Yixing replies in a tiny voice as he stands up. “I’m sorry.” He says once more as if it’ll make a difference, repeating the phrase in a mutter as he returns to his tent. 

Junmyeon's in the same exact spot as before. Yixing wraps his arms around his back and presses his head to his chest and he knows he'll have to tell him but if he pulls himself close enough Junmyeon's smell overwhelms the anxiety and he's able to forget what just even happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well....... if you were team Kyungsoo, here is a W for you
> 
> however, if you were team yixing (or kyungsoo too actually) do you think Kyungsoo was a bit too mean? or did yixing only get what he merited. it seems yixing believes he deserves it, but telling by the request for a hug at the end (I hope you got as much second hand embarrassment reading it as I writing it), yixing isn't exactly in peak state of mind. 
> 
> and also wonder what's up with junmyeon... and I would take note on how yixing refers to him. is this exactly healthy?
> 
> okay and on a much lighter note, I'm about to also publish the little Christmas side fic in the next chapter. you absolutely do not have to read it, but if you're curious, I'll explain more in the next publication!!
> 
> and speaking of Christmas merry Christmas for if you celebrate and happy last week(ish) of December for if you don't <3<3


	45. [SPECIAL] How the B-B-H Stole Christmas... Or, Like, Tried to

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [SPECIAL] EXO's Christmas 2 years before Yixing from the perspective of our beloved BBH.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!
> 
> Firstly, this is absolutely OPTIONAL to read! AKA, you do NOT HAVE to read this!
> 
> This is just an extra little (25k words...) thing I had written for the fun of the holiday spirit. It has nothing to do with the current plot of Power whatsoever and if you don't read it you won't miss anything. It's just for if you like this a/u and want some more fluff/deeper exploration into the universe! It includes the three now 'deceased' members and some more personal details of some members you won't get from the main story. 
> 
> And on that parenthetical, yes, it is 25k words. If you couldn't tell by now, I am capable of ridiculous word counts. So warning. And also another warning because it's in the narrative voice of Baekhyun. And consequently the comedy (and overall narrative) is VERY immature. 
> 
> If you read all this and are still going to proceed, enjoy!

Baekhyun is in  _ big  _ trouble.

Not in the usual physical kind, per se, like when he makes jokes about Minseok’s height or stays a minute too long poking Kyungsoo or goes around following Zitao and mocking his accent, but rather a different kind of danger. An emotional danger.

It all started when the yellow caged lights in the hallways turned into a pattern of red and greens. Junmyeon and Yifan did what they had done last year and put up a giant green tree and hung lights in all the halls they could. Though, this year, since everything isn’t a blur from withdrawal, Baekhyun could see that there is, like, a  _ lot _ more than that. There’s always plates of some kind of sugary treat laying around, garland over just about every door, the subtle jingly music in the halls he actually hears now that he isn’t crying about being in space and begging for nicotine. From the stuffed elves tied to the bedposts in the dorms to the ginger and peppermint scented shampoo (which, B-T-W, is dis-gust- _ tang _ ), EXO has gone all out in preparation for Christmas.

Well, EXO except for Baekhyun. Baekhyun, who’s sitting in the rec room staring at the innumerable gifts under the tree and knowing, although it’s Christmas Eve, that absolutely  _ none  _ of the pretty boxes are signed  _ FROM: B-B-H. _

It’s not his fault though! It literally isn’t! Kay, so, firstly: how’s  _ he _ supposed to know what they’re supposed to do for Christmas?! Like, yeah, sure, he has been here for the last couple weeks witnessing the preparation, but, like, was he  _ seriously  _ supposed to be taking notes? And last year doesn’t help either, cause all it was was him and Dae feeling like shit (though Dae was worse, dude had all  _ sorts _ of problems) cause RF and CF forced them to stop using substances cause they’re saving the universe and then  _ that,  _ that right there,  _ saving the universe,  _ Baekhyun had realized waking up in front of three smoking hot dudes wasn’t an acid-induced fantasy and then got depressed as fuck because what else do you do when you realize you’ve been kidnapped to save the universe and there ain’t a drop of alcohol to cope with it? But anyway, so like last year was hella awkward with just the six of them, Yifan, Minseok, Luhan, Junmyeon, and him and Dae, cause 1) literally all of the former except for him and Dae are the quiet type and 2) they were trying to coax him and Dae out of the medical unit for  _ hours  _ that day. Anyway, it sucked. Boo. And doesn’t give any hint to the fact that Baekhyun is obligated to have been getting everyone gifts.

Though maybe he had known about this obligation anyway. Maybe RF had even said it herself. Maybe CF had reminded him like ten times. And maybe he had held it off a little. But, like, now it’s Christmas Eve and he still hasn’t done jack shit and that’s  _ so  _ unfair! 

And what does he even get them?! He knows the ship and Exoplanet’s huge as fuck but that’s  _ so _ much work to go looking for stuff. Like,  _ fuck,  _ he  _ knew _ he shouldn’t have given out the hentai to Chanyeol and Kyungsoo (and fucking Kyungsoo, bitch hates him now, but  _ still  _ has his porn). That would have been the perfect gift except for like, Zitao and Jongin, but for them he could just, like, put a candy cane in a plastic bag and call it good. But now it’s too late. Now people have his porn and Zitao and Jongin enjoy all the candy canes that keep appearing on the Christmas tree cause Junmyeon’s a fucking idiot and keeps replacing them thinking that’s gonna stop them from being stolen. 

And, like, god, it’s been  _ forever  _ since he’s had Christmas. Last year was explained, but even the year before that, the year before everything (EXO), Baekhyun had made the mistake of ditching his moms to go to a Christmas party. But turns out (‘turns out’ as in he didn’t know! Well, Dahyun had kind of told him, but Dahyun’s a prude sometimes so he didn’t actually  _ believe  _ her!) this Christmas party was for, like, adults, and he was kind of like fourteen and got busted for drinking and them  _ boom,  _ grounded for months and he didn’t even get no damn presents. So it’s been like  _ forever  _ since 1) he’s actually enjoyed this time of year and 2) he’s had to partake in the traditions and stuff AKA getting people shit. Though, T-B-H, he ain’t really enjoying this time of year right now. Even if it’s Destroy Dick December (which, by the way, he’s beating Dae by  _ far _ even though Dae’s got himself a whole ass boytoy).

But don’t worry! He’s got a plan!

This plan came to him last night when he found himself not sleeping because  _ wait… O-M-G, hold up… it’s literally Christmas Eve  _ tomorrow _ and I haven’t done shit!  _ He was originally heading to the EXO-M dorm to find Dae and they’d solve this together (cause Dae’s great like that), but when he crossed the hall, he caught a glimpse of Luhan.

Though, it was more like the  _ sound  _ of Luhan, cause bitch was conversating with himself as he went to the kitchen. And Baekhyun knew that if he was talking to himself that’s cause he wasn’t talking to anyone else, AKA he’s alone, so Baekhyun used his new trick and imitated the wall to follow invisibly because maybe Luhan would have an opinion on all of this or maybe Luhan was going to do some weird sex thing Baekhyun didn’t want to intrude on. Or maybe did. Depends.

Although it’s still pretty crappy, the dark of the ship’s dimmed lights at night basically makes Baekhyun’s illusions the real thing. He doesn’t have to focus as hard to get every pixel, every atom, every  _ everything, _ correctly envisioned and coloured to try to make the real thing. You know,  _ that’s  _ part of it too! He’s been working so hard on his power that he just hasn’t had time to get gifts! And like, joke’s on them, cause they won’t be able to find him to murder him because he’ll be like a chameleon. But joke’s actually on him cause he still isn’t that good. Baekhyun really hopes he’ll be able to like, make actual  _ people  _ someday. Or just  _ realistic  _ things. That’d be dope as fuck.

“–you told him you didn’t, right?”

“Well…” Luhan’s blonde head tilts downwards as he’s interrogated by Luhan. “I haven’t really gone straight to him to talk about it yet, but it’s such a stupid problem, if he had his panties in such a twist he should’ve just come to me about it.”

“Well, I guess you’re right…”

“Yeah, I  _ am _ right.”

“Don’t use that tone with me.” 

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck  _ you.”  _ It’s been like forever but Baekhyun still thinks it’s a bit strange. Like, sure, Baekhyun will sometimes think out loud, but not to the point of being at  _ opposition _ with himself. How do you even do that?

“And like, he didn’t even  _ have  _ his panties in a twist, bruh.” Luhan turns into the kitchen. Baekhyun slips through the door silently, immediately diverting to the far corner where it’s dark and he’s far away. “It’s  _ my _ laundry, not his.”

“You know…” Luhan says as he climbs up onto the counter (bare feet down on where Kyungsoo cooks and  _ everything _ – it’s amazing), reaching to the top of the high shelves to pull down some Cheetos. “You should just ask CF. She’d probably know.”

“Yeah, but then I have to go  _ all  _ the way to her room. Same with RF.” Luhan goes from bare feet on one counter to (not bare) ass on the other. He swings his legs on the edge of the island as he opens the loud bag. 

And here’s the good part:

“I should really, though… you know, it’s only two days till Christmas, and I still haven’t gotten anyone  _ anything.”  _

“You  _ haven’t–?!” _ Luhan’s eyes widen, but then he snaps out of the double persona, dropping the bag of Cheetos onto his lap and putting his head in his hands. “I haven’t… I feel so bad,  _ what do I do…” _

He continued to talk as one person and that’s when Baekhyun knew he was, like, for real. “Ah… should I go to CF? Would either of them even help me? I could show them the lists… or shit, did I throw them away? I guess I could pull an all-nighter… well, no, Minseok wanted to do that workout thing, and I’ve held it off for so long…  _ fuck.  _ I’m fucked.” And Baekhyun had never felt so much relief in his life because those were the same exact thoughts running through  _ his  _ head (except the Minseok thing, don’t know what was going on there. And  _ lists? ). _

And from this, Baekhyun got an idea. He could’ve just straight up revealed himself and explained his similar predicament to Luhan last night, but no, he had a better idea:

Intimidation.

AKA, when Luhan comes in the room for what has to be the seventh time that day, eyeing the Christmas tree and the gifts under it with terror on his face cause he’s just  _ that  _ obvious, Baekhyun calls him on his brisk way out:

“Hey, sexy, stop right there.” 

Luhan turns around with that slightly disgusted slightly humored countenance everyone has on when Baekhyun greets them like that, though some people are on different sides on the scale (Dae: “Yes, sexy?" Kyungsoo: “Call me that again and I’ll tear out your vocal chords.”). Because Luhan is more on the humored side, Baekhyun doesn’t continue to tease him with,  _ damn, did you really think I was talking to you, ugly?  _ (At which point Kyungsoo had actually attempted to tear out his vocal chords). But Baekhyun likes both to make people laugh and suffer so it’s a win either way. 

“What, Baekhyun?” Luhan’s eyes dart to the Christmas tree again. He’s calm, sure, but Baekhyun knows him. He sees right through him and his  _ little angel Lu _ persona. Though no one else really seems to.

“C’mere.” Baekhyun beckons with a singular finger to where he’s spread out on the couch in the corner. For the holidays, the rec room is completely wiped clean, nothing but the reds and greens and whites and golds of decorations, the TV, and the couch in the corner. Everything else is shoved in a storage unit. And also schedules are reduced by far, so Baekhyun has been able to prowl here all day.

_ “Baek,”  _ Luhan whines in that really Dae-like way, “don’t use that gesture. It’s weird.”

“Seems to work well enough.” Baekhyun grins because despite what Luhan says he’s still now sitting at the other end of the– wait, holdup, never mind, now he’s getting back up.

“Wait!” Baekhyun lurches forward to grab his shirt and sit him back down. “I– I have something to ask, bro.”

“What?” Baekhyun’s kicked back by the chest as Luhan reseats himself, eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

To such a face, Baekhyun beams brightly, “What’d you get me for Christmas,  _ Hyungie?” _

Little Angel Lu's face goes blank. “Uh…–“

“Cause, like,” Baekhyun doesn’t make the cuteness in his voice  _ too  _ obvious, but adds enough prep to make it look like he’s genuinely excited (but don’t get him wrong, Baekhyun is  _ adorable  _ anyway. And hot as fuck). “I know it isn’t the tradition, but, like, I can’t wait! Please tell me what you got me! Or maybe what you got someone else, if you don’t wanna spoil? I’m wondering if we were thinking the same thing. Like, I did this with Dae too, we shared what we got everyone to compare. What’d you get Dae, by the way?” ( _ Yo, that rhymes!) _

“I…” But Luhan’s a pretty good actor in this way, so the hesitance is immediately gone (but don't get him wrong, Baekhyun and his giant brain still see right through him). “I don’t want to spoil anything. Just wait till tomorrow, Baekhyunnie, okay?” A weak smile.

“Bitch,  _ no.  _ Tell me  _ now.”  _ Baekhyun readjusts himself into a squat cause fuck you Minseok it’s comfy. “Like, what’d you get Jongin? I won’t tell him.”

“Baekhyun, I’m not telling you.” Luhan puts on his Mr. Serious voice, but he has the face of a nine-year-old girl so doesn’t really do anything T-B-H.

“Please?” Baekhyun’s recent dye job – which wasn’t much, just some streaks of red in his black hair – has him looking smoking hot, like,  _ really _ hot, he still doesn’t know how someone this good-looking can exist, but he still tries to go the cute route (yo, that one  _ also  _ rhymes!) of cupping his cheeks in his hands. Seduction’s kind of out of the question when Luhan’s hetero. Well, for this question, at least. Baekhyun could make any dude gay if he  _ really _ wanted to. 

“No, bruh. This all?” Luhan props himself up.

“No.” And sinks back down into the couch. Baekhyun decides to change angles. 

“Why won’t you tell me?” He brings his voice back to his normal level. “Did you like,  _ not get anyone anything _ or something?”

“Wha–  _ no,  _ no no.” Luhan forces out a chuckle and Baekhyun smirks. He’s got him. “I literally am just  _ not _ telling you.”

“Oh, is that it?” Baekhyun quirks a brow, shifting back onto his butt. “You’re just not telling me?”

A scoff from the blonde. “Yes, I’m _just not telling you…_ what? why are you looking at me like–“

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun tilts his head to the side like those creepy dolls in the horror movies. “You know, Luie, you seem kind of nervous. You stuttered earlier, you know. And your face is kind of red. Am I really that handsome?”

Luhan wasn’t red before, but now he definitely is: Baekhyun’s oldest trick. Teasing others never fails to give him a rush. “Yah,  _ no.  _ Ugly. I just– just had a workout with Minseokie, that’s all.”

“Mmm…” Baekhyun hums, “What’d you get  _ Minseokie _ for Christmas?”

_ “Nothing!”  _ Luhan snaps, and  _ yes! _ He’s got him! “Nothing– well,  _ something,  _ but none of  _ your  _ business.” Oh. False alarm. 

But he’ll still win this. Easily. “Why are you getting so worked up over this? It’s as if you’re trying to lie to me.” 

“I’m not.” Another glance at the Christmas tree, and damn, Baekhyun really doesn’t understand how everyone sees Luhan as this little purity. He’s not even that good of an actor yet he gets away with shit like last week when he gave Jongin a really big wedgie from across the room and then said it was  _ Baekhyun  _ (to which Jongin chased him until he found Dae and latched onto him for protection and Dae threatened Jongin with a lightning bolt).

“Oh, but you are.” Baekhyun decides he’s satisfied with a red face and stutters. Now, he goes in for the kill, scooting close and placing his hands on Luhan’s criss-crossed knees. He leans in closer.  _ “I know what you did.”  _ But then he realizes Luhan  _ didn’t  _ do anything that’s literally the point so he revises, “Or should I say, _ didn’t  _ do.”

Despite the slip up, it still has the same effect, Luhan’s eyes widening as he practically shouts,  _ “No!”  _ and shoves Baekhyun backwards. As he had been expecting it, Baekhyun merely rolls back to a sit-up, trying to control his laughter as he points at his friend.

_“Aha–_ I– I– ahaha– I heard you! I _heard_ you say it! _You– aha–_ _you_ haven’t gotten anyone _anything_ and it’s Christmas eve! You cruel motherfucker!”

“Where–  _ where _ did you even– yah,  _ stop laughing!” _ Luhan goes to the extent of flinging one of the Christmas movies at him. Three more CD cases tremble in midair threateningly and Baekhyun silences himself, rubbing the side of his head. 

“Where…” Luhan repeats himself, “Where did you even hear that?”

“You.”

“Who was I talking to?”

“You.”

_ “Oh…” _ Luhan’s gaze drops, and then his expression goes to that one he had last night that was like, actually kind of really sad, so Baekhyun feels his chest sink and boom he shows mercy.

“Bro.” He scoots back closer, lifting Luhan’s chin up with a finger (also a gesture taken either gross or funny). “It’s okay though.” (That  _ also  _ rhymes!)

“I feel so bad, Baek.” Luhan immediately breaks. He does that often, especially with Baekhyun and Minseok and Dae and sometimes Zitao, cause he’s got a soft heart, really. That’s why Baekhyun likes him. They’re similar at the core. “Please don’t tell. I just… I didn’t know the perfect gift, you know? I– I made a bunch of lists but then I put so much and held off deciding… held off deciding for just a bit too long… and I only get once a year to do this. I mean, I could always just get better gifts next year, but still…”

“Awe, Lu, can I tell you a secret?” Baekhyun asks softly, hand still on his chin.

“Yeah…?” Luhan seems slightly confused, eyes flickering up to meet his slightly narrowed.

Baekhyun beckons him over his shoulder, bringing his lips to his ear.

_ “I haven’t gotten anyone anything either.” _

“BAEKHYUN!” Luhan practically screams, backing up and shoving him once again. “It’s literally almost  _ Christmas!  _ What’s wrong with you?!”

Baekhyun’s jaw drops in indignance. Never mind. Luhan’s heart is burnt to a crisp. Fuck him. Little nine-year-old girl looking ass.  _ “Bitch,  _ you have NO right!  _ None!” _

“Yeah, sure,” Luhan scoffs, “but I kind of have a feeling  _ you _ were just too lazy.”

_ He did NOT! _

_ “No,  _ I just didn’t know what to get eit _ her!” _ Baekhyun’s voice cracks and Luhan tries not to laugh. Tries. 

“You know what?” A slightly reddened Baekhyun punches the degenerate in the arm. “One, fuck you, whore, you’re ugly, and  _ two,  _ it doesn’t matter how we got here. Just that we’re both here. Fucked.” And not even the good kind. 

“Well… it kind of does matter how–“

_ “No it doesn’t!" _

“…Okay, okay,  _ jeez…” _ Luhan replies when Baekhyun continues to seethe, fists clenched ready to pounce. He snaps out of it in a millisecond, replacing everything with a smile. When this happens Luhan’s face contorts in discomfort. “God, it’s fucking creepy when you do that.”

“Like  _ you  _ don’t do it too. Two faced bitch.” 

“At least my two faces are handsome.”

“Now you’re just lying to yourself at this point.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “And just like in your attempt to lie to me, it’s failing, honey.”

Luhan’s expression suggests retaliation, but instead he just sighs, AKA Baekhyun wins! “Look, you’re right. We’re in the same boat.”

“But you’re tryna push me out of it.” Baekhyun frowns.

“No I’m not…” Luhan adds upon Baekhyun’s expression. “I’m not, Baek. Seriously.” Baekhyun’s pout grows until Luhan softens fully, “Baek…” A hand on his arm. “I’m terrified just like you, bro. So I wouldn’t throw you under the bus.”

Baekhyun continues to sulk, “I thought we were in a boat.”

“Sake of analogy.”

“What? Speak Korean, please.” And it’s not even like that was Mandarin either. Him and Yifan and Zitao never really speak Mandarin unless it’s to translate for Zitao. 

“Never mind.” Luhan shakes his head because he’s a bully like that. He thinks he’s  _ so _ smart, huh? “Just stop being sad.”

“They’re all gonna hate me.” Baekhyun keeps being sad. “Us. Both of us. They’re gonna hate us. Kick us out. And no offense, but I don’t wanna be stuck with  _ you _ .” 

“Offense taken.” Luhan replies calmly. “And for the record, I don’t want to be stuck with you either. No offense.”

“Offense taken,  _ bitch." _

“Baek…” Luhan’s voice tapers into a whine. He slumps back into the arm of the couch. “What do we even do at this point?”

Baekhyun shrugs, “I don’t know.” And he really doesn’t. He had kind of just planned until here. Luhan’s supposed to be smart and come up with something!

“Well…” Baekhyun prays there are things going on in that head other than the usual static. Baekhyun’s pretty sure whenever something goes on his head it’s said out loud because dude does  _ not  _ shut the fuck up. Even alone. So when he’s not talking there’s just nothing happening up there. “We  _ have  _ to get them gifts…”

“No, we  _ do?”  _ Baekhyun’s sarcasm is met with another menacing movie in the air. He cringes into a ball and kicks at Luhan when he laughs. 

“Bitch.” Baekhyun sits himself back up with dignity. “I’ll blind you. And then since you’re ugly no one’s gonna want to help you out but me, the kind caring B-B-H, but you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna lock you in the anti-grav bathroom.” 

Luhan rolls his eyes because he thinks Baekhyun’s joking. Hah. “Just shut up and help me figure out something. Okay?” 

_ “Oh-kah?”  _ Baekhyun mimics in a high-pitched voice, but goes quiet after the subsequent glare. What  _ do  _ they do? There isn’t really any other option but to get the gifts, is there? But how are they supposed to 1) find out what the fuck everyone wants, and 2) even if they accomplished that, how are they to even get all the stuff wrapped and ready before tomorrow? It’s impossible! They simply do not have enough…

…Enough  _ time. _

Baekhyun speaks in sync with the idea’s expansion, “Lu! I know! We can get Zitao!” Luhan’s eyes widen, the plan continues to unravel in Baekhyun’s brain, “Okay, okay, so like, dude can just stop time! Like, like, so, we can find out what everyone wants today, and then get a good sleep cause I ain’t missing no sleep, and then  _ boom _ tomorrow morning have him just pause the whole universe and then we go and get the presents done!”

Luhan’s lips part as he witnesses the wisdom. “You… oh my god… Baekhyun, you  _ genius!” _ __

“I know!” It’s tacit they both jump up for a high-ten, Baekhyun’s heart thrumming with relief. So he’s not gonna be hated after all. Convincing Zitao is no problem. He’ll take anything anyone says. Heck, sometimes it’s like he focuses more on  _ translating  _ what’s said than actually getting what it means. He’s the newest here, with four months under his belt, but Baekhyun swears his Korean hasn’t gotten  _ any  _ better. 

“Okay, so,” They both flop back down, now side by side. Luhan speaks, “We should tell Zitao something like…  _ oh, _ like we’re planning a pleasant surprise for the morning. But we can’t tell what the surprise is. Because it’s a surprise.”

“Yeah!” Baekhyun nods, staring at the presents under the tree. How there’s aboutta be eighteen more. “And then when we get our gifts and stuff we can just tell him it didn’t work. Easy!”

“Yeah!”

“But, like,” Luhan glances from the tree where he was also looking to him. “Who’s going to get intel from who? For what they want?”

“Mmm…” Baekhyun uses Luhan’s thigh to sit himself upright, giving it a subsequent squeeze solely because Luhan glares at the touch. “We can just split it, yeah.”

“Alright…” Luhan’s glare then turns into a look of hesitance, “But, actually, how would we get that in conversation without it being obvious what we’re doing?”

“Um…” Baekhyun looks at him like he’s stupid because he’s stupid.  _ “Lie. _ Obviously. We’re literally the best liars here.” Though Baekhyun’s better than him. 

“Oh yeah, you’re right.” 

“I know. Now, who gonna ask who?” Who are the most gullible in EXO?, Baekhyun thinks.

“I’ll take Zitao. He likes me more.” And shit, that was one of them!

“No he doesn’t.” Baekhyun denies, but quickly moves on not because he knows it’s a losing argument but simply because he wants to get on with the topic, “I want Jongin and Junmyeon.” AKA the biggest idiots in EXO. Well, Junmyeon’s not an  _ idiot _ , per se, but he believes everything everyone says and Baekhyun doesn’t remember the last time he said the word  _ no.  _ And Jongin’s just fucking stupid.

“Then I want Chanyeol.” Luhan says and  _ fuck  _ Baekhyun should’ve said Chanyeol too! He’s similar to Junmyeon in that deathly afraid of offending people way (imagine living your life like that.  _ Yikes!).  _ “And you can have Kyungsoo.”

“What?  _ Me?”  _ Baekhyun bristles at the image of trying to lie to those big calculating eyes. “He hates me.”

“Hates you? He literally talked to  _ only you  _ for a month!”

“But you know he then turned into hating me! He–“

“And I’ll take the boyfriends while we’re at it.” Luhan grins. “You can have Yifan.”

_ “Yifan?!”  _ Baekhyun sputters, though now that he thinks about it Yifan isn’t actually that bad. Maybe. Baekhyun doesn’t know. Baekhyun can  _ never  _ tell what he’s thinking. It’s like he’s a robot. Kyungsoo on the other hand will straight up tell him to go die. 

“Yup! No takebacks! This is final!” Luhan goes to stand but Baekhyun’s faster (and smarter and hotter and damn, Lulu, why do you even try?). He yanks him back down onto the couch by the wrist, then trying to say something but Luhan’s dumb so he fights back and so it turns into a struggle. Luhan’s a little taller than him, but he’s scrawny, and lately Baekhyun’s getting bulky as fuck so it’s not long before he wins him over. He  _ then  _ goes to say that Something, but then Luhan, the little bitch he is, flings  _ another  _ movie at his head and Baekhyun yelps and Luhan gets out from under him and  _ no!, _ he’s  _ not _ getting away!, so Baekhyun full on  _ tackles  _ him and maybe Luhan’s head makes a worryingly loud BANG into the floor but whatever, more victory for him, and–

_ Woosh!  _ Go the rec room’s sliding metal doors.

“Um…” A nonplussed Dae stares at Baekhyun straddling what looks like an unconscious Luhan. “What are you…”

The unconscious Luhan immediately reanimates, trying to shove Baekhyun off and trying to screech, “JONGDAE, HE’S–  _ MMPH!”  _ But  _ trying,  _ because Baekhyun stays right where he is and shoves his hand over his mouth.

“We’re having sex.” He explains calmly. “Get out.”

Luhan’s eyes bulge and he begins to shake his head, so Baekhyun presses down on harder to smother the movement. “Are you gonna keep staring or join us?”

“I…” Dae’s black bangs hide his eyebrows, but his eyes are so wide there isn’t a question to his current emotion. “I just came… to put down another present… it’s for you, actually, Baek.”

_ “Awe,  _ Dae!” Baekhyun feels a tongue glide across his palm and it kind of tickles but he ignores it. He’ll just lick Luhan’s face after. “You’re too kind.”

“Love ya.” Dae stands on his toes to stick the jewelry-sized box somewhere within the tree, and fuck, now Baekhyun feels worse. Dae’s so sweet but he got him, his  _ B-F-F,  _ literally nothing. But he shoves this guilt away with the grin on his face and pep in his voice. 

“I’d give you a big smooch right now, but I’m currently busy.” Baekhyun smirks down at Luhan just to piss him off more. His face is a deep red as if Baekhyun’s choking him or something. “Aren’t we, Lu?”

_ “MMM!”  _ Another movie flung at him but Baekhyun ducks it. However, the ducking lets Luhan make a swift move of the jaw, and then Baekhyun’s fingertips are  _ burning.  _

He lets out a cry as he’s shoved off, curling up into a fetal position because  _ fuck  _ it burns it burns  _ it burns!  _ His fingers aren’t gonna fall off, are they? His hand’s not gonna fall off right? His arms? Will he be  _ paralyzed  _ on the left side? It hurts, it burns, he’s gonna die. He’s gonna  _ die! _ And Dae’s laughing, motherfucker, he’s never gonna get no smooches ever again, and he’s gonna kill Luhan and it hurts so  _ much!  _ He’s gonna get infected from Luhan’s rat diseases and die. He’s gonna die! He’s gonna get sick and his fingers are gonna fall off and he’s–

“–not going to die.” Says Kyungsoo a couple hours later, taking his eyes away from the blisters on Baekhyun’s middle and pointer and the other-one-next-to-the-middle finger. Kyungsoo has duty in the medical unit sometimes to organize the stuff cause he knows how to deal with all the big fancy words, but often it ends up him using his also extensive knowledge of first aid to help with the aftermaths of fights and stuff. He goes back to the drawing pad that he  _ always  _ has angled so no one else can see what he’s doing. Baekhyun’s half convinced he’s drawing porn. 

“But what if I do? What if I catch his diseases?” Kyungsoo doesn’t laugh and Baekhyun frowns. He knows he shouldn’t try to make Kyungsoo like him anymore, heck, he even  _ has _ stopped trying, but then sometimes he just does but it doesn’t work and yeah. 

“He doesn’t have diseases.” Kyungsoo states simply, but then his thick brows furrow and his eyes dart somewhere off the pad. “Probably. Guess we’ll find out when you die.”

“…Your concern flatters me, really.” Baekhyun tries to do that being passive aggressive by sounding smart thing back. It’s unfair that Kyungsoo’s fifteen yet he knows all these smart words and stuff Baekhyun’s sure he won’t know till he’s twenty. 

“Hyung, why are you here?” Kyungsoo lowers his pencil hand and looks at him. “I’m kind of busy.” Baekhyun’s eyes narrow. “Your hentai can wait.” Except perhaps this wasn’t the best thing to say because Kyungsoo glares a glare like no other and Baekhyun’s supposed to be  _ asking him what he wants for Christmas.  _

“And– and speaking– speaking of hentai…” Baekhyun redirects. At this, Kyungsoo’s glare softens. “I was wondering…” He finds the perfect loophole. “I know it’s kind of late to ask, but you wouldn’t be, like…  _ offended, _ if I had put in some more of that for you for Christmas…” Though he knows from eight or whatever it was months ago that Kyungsoo would much rather receive parts and wires or art tools or books. But, of course, things are different now. If Baekhyun got him any of that it would just be weird. Gay. He ain’t gay. (For real, though, he’s bi.  _ Don’t _ let Dae tell you otherwise). 

“Um…” Kyungsoo meets his eyes for a split second before going back to the drawing pad. “That’s fine. It’s… it’s packaged discreetly, right?” 

“Mhm!” Baekhyun chirps just a bit too brightly. He had just gotten a bit excited, cause it’s a W for Kyungsoo! “It-it’s on the little USB kind of thing I gave you the first time.” 

“It’s called an XLP.” Kyungsoo corrects cause he’s a fucking nerd.

“Whatever.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “Just… wanted to make sure you knew ahead of time, so you wouldn’t like pop it in the viewer in front of everyone. Though that would’ve been funny. But I wouldn’t do that to you.” But like, actually, what if he  _ did?  _ Anything is worth it if it has comedic potential. 

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo grunts not very thankfully, but it ain’t do shit to Baekhyun’s mood. He’s got Kyungsoo down! That’s one out of four, and this was his most formidable enemy. Like, he just took down Regina George before even  _ thinking  _ about Karen and Gretchen.

“And Baekhyun-hyung.” Baekhyun is on the way out because Kyungsoo doesn’t really care for goodbyes. He stops, turning around to see a not-glaring Kyungsoo. Though he’s kind of squinting. Baekhyun’s pretty sure he needs glasses.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t pick at the blisters. And if you’re going to pop it, use a clean needle and put antibiotics on after.”

Did he really just give him genuine advice? That’s the nicest thing Kyungsoo’s done since he made him cookies. Maybe Baekhyun should deal porn more often.

“Thanks.” He’s pretty sure he’s just gonna find a thumbtack lying around or go at it pimple style, but it’s the thought that counts. “That’s sweet of you, Kyungie.”

“Get out.”

_ “–Yep I’m going.”  _

Baekhyun returns to the hallway not even five minutes after his entrance finding this  _ way _ easier than he had thought. Though he hopes Luhan’s struggling. Suffering. He hopes Dae has avenged him and bitten his fingers. Or his face. Bitten his face off. Yeah. But anyway, if Kyungsoo, shrewd and cynical Kyungsoo, just took some whining about how he was gonna die and some hentai, he wonders how easily the rest of this is going to go. Perhaps the universe is rooting for him.

_ No,  _ Baekhyun thinks as he hears an all-too-familiar  _ “shit”  _ down the hall,  _ the universe is  _ definitely _ rooting for me. _

It’s a tall person thing, Baekhyun’s learned, to trip on everything because you can’t see what’s on the ground as easily. Or, at least, that’s what Yifan has told him when (after extensive teasing, of course) Baekhyun asks him why he’s so damn uncoordinated. Though, upon turning the corner about twenty feet on from the medical unit, Baekhyun’s a bit confused by the swear because Yifan is sitting down, but then that confusion is distracted by even more confusion because why is Yifan watching the little cleaning robot thingies?

“Whaddup.” Baekhyun greets, though maybe it’s  _ whaddown, _ cause what’s so interesting about them floor bots? They’re like little cockroaches. RF and CF added them a couple months ago and Baekhyun has hated them ever since. Moving robots freak him out. At least RF and CF stay in their rooms. 

“Hi.” Yifan doesn’t even give a glance, concentrated on the plate-like figures. But like the square plates. They’re like, metal. And have dim lights on the sides. And make little skitter noises like that one time his house had mice. Baekhyun then notices Yifan’s got what looks like a diary in his criss-crossed lap.

_ “Yo~”  _ In one swift motion, Baekhyun swoops down, swiping the notebook from his lap and leaning back against the wall opposite. “What’s this, a diary?”

“No.” Yifan doesn’t sound, like, nervous or anything, so it’s actually probably not a diary. Damn. And here Baekhyun thought he was on the brink of a discovery (the discovery: Yifan Hyung does in fact have emotions). “It’s just a little project.”

“What little project?” Baekhyun flips to the first page, seeing what  _ looks  _ like a diary entry, and kind of reads like one, but isn’t about anything emotional.

_ Hello. Here I’ll write about the technology. My plan is to share this with everyone so they can feel more safe knowing how everything works. It’s currently– _

“I like to keep track of things.” Yifan snatches the journal back, somehow flipping to the exact page without even  _ looking  _ (respect, dude) and going back to writing. He multitasks writing down a literal paragraph while talking to Baekhyun– like, two different conversations. Is it a bilingual people thing? “If you couldn’t tell by the other lists I’ve made. This list is for the technology, and I just haven’t had time to get these guys down.”

“You should keep them off. Better if we all pretend they don’t exist.” Except that doesn’t stop him from tripping over them all the damn time… “Actually,” Baekhyun steps closer to the one Yifan’s observing, lifting his sneakered foot over the barrier Yifan’s made to hover directly over the bot. “Maybe if I just…” He slowly lowers his foot.

“Baekhyun, no.”

“Okay.” Baekhyun frowns as he puts his foot down but it’s not on the bot its back behind him. The bot is currently trapped between four miscellaneous items: a cushion, a pillow, a stack of books, and a laundry basket. It bounces slowly around the area like the loading screens on those really old TVs. 

“And, yo, speaking of lists,” Baekhyun decides to sidle his way into the topic. “I was wondering–“

“It’s fine, you don’t need to.” Baekhyun’s jaw drops cause  _ what?!  _ Why’s he– and Yifan just  _ stares _ back up at him, dull expression not changing whatsoever as he continues, “Sorry, I mean, what were you going to say?”

Confusion furrows Baekhyun’s brows because  _ what  _ is Yifan talking about? But he ultimately doesn’t bother himself too much with it. Yifan’s always been weird. He probably just had a system error.

“I– I was saying…” Yifan’s face stays the same and Baekhyun loses any suspicion. “I was gonna ask what was on your Christmas list. Cause, well, it’s the day before, I’m wondering what you had wanted. If I had gotten it right.”

“I don’t want anything.” Yifan shrugs. “I already have everything I need.”

“Shut the fuck– shut up.” Baekhyun still doesn’t know why he treats Yifan like an authority figure. Like, yeah, he’s the leader and all that, but Baekhyun has never been one for respecting authority and all this guy does is stare at you and raise his voice maybe once a year… maybe it’s the height and face. If he saw him on the streets Baekhyun wouldn’t approach him. Well, wouldn’t approach him for any other reason than he’s fucking hot. “I know nobody actually  _ means  _ that. Come on. Fess up. What’cha  _ actually  _ want. Like, even if it’s crazy.” After all, they’ll have all the time in the universe. 

“Well… I guess there’s this one thing–“

“What one thing?!”

“I…” Yifan looks up again and Baekhyun’s overenthusiasm dims. “I was getting to that. I would’ve liked a copy of CF’s advanced functions.”

_ Oddly specific… good for me!  _ Baekhyun sees nothing wrong with it. He repeats it in his head: a copy of CF’s advanced functions. Sounds boring as fuck.

“Sounds boring as fuck. You’re a nerd. Do you have, like,  _ any  _ hobbies?”

“Reading. That’s  _ why _ I want a book.” Yifan replies. His pencil then stills on the paper, then doing that staring thing again. “And actually, I think I also want the last two members. Maybe they won’t be brats.” 

Baekhyun’s jaw drops in indignance, but he quickly recovers. “Oh yes they will. They’ll think you’re a dweeb just like everyone else.” Or maybe they won’t even think. Zitao’s fucking fourteen and Jongin’s  _ just _ cutting fifteen and they don’t even shave, let alone think for themselves. Baekhyun really hopes they aren’t getting younger and younger. And, B-T-W, when  _ are  _ they coming? The newbies. Honestly, when someone new comes it just makes everything uncomfortable for a while, it would be easier if they all just came at once. 

“Then I’ll kindly return them. Maybe you too while I’m at it.” Yifan smiles saccharinely, doing nothing in response to Baekhyun’s kick. 

“You’re a little bitch, you know that?” Except that Yifan then stands up more than a head taller than him and Baekhyun revises, “A  _ big  _ bitch. You’re a big bitch.” 

“At least I–…” It seems Yifan was about to say something confidently, but he cuts himself short and instead says, “Never mind. See you later.” A pat on the head as Yifan often does with literally everyone cause he can, but Baekhyun slaps his arm away.

“No!” Cause he fucking  _ hates  _ when people pull that ‘actually never mind’ shit! It’s the  _ worst!  _ He quickly catches up, grabbing his arm and yanking him to a stop. “What were you gonna say?! Don’t you think you can pull that on me,  _ tell  _ me!”

“It’s nothing.” Yifan continues on, arm sliding out of his grip. Rage fills Baekhyun, but so does bit of suspicion, because Yifan is usually  _ never  _ petty like this. 

“Tell me! Tell me tell me  _ tell me!” _ Baekhyun chases him down the hall, latching onto his arm and roadblocking him and even trying to jump onto his shoulders at one point, but Yifan’s literally a moving brick wall so all Baekhyun gets is no response and injured at his own attempts to stop him.

To his utter shock, Junmyeon doesn’t relent either.

“Baekhyun– I– I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” Though it  _ really _ seems otherwise by the wide eyes and way he’s now sweating although they’re not even in the gym, they’re in a computer lab. Junmyeon’s playing one of those stupid time matching games only the grandmothers play. But now that Baekhyun’s here Junmyeon’s full attention is on him, of course.

“Then why are you sweating? Why are you stuttering? Huh?” Baekhyun leans closer from the chair he had pulled up, eyes narrowing. Like, in reality, Junmyeon gets flustered like  _ all  _ the time, especially if there’s a situation he can’t help with, and it’s probably that, but, like, what if it’s not?

“Be-because I can’t answer your question– I’m sorry.” Junmyeon shies away from the lean, eyes flickering to the door as if he thinks he’s gonna run. Funny. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Okay, Junmyeon,  _ okay.”  _ Baekhyun always gets away ditching honorifics with him, even if they’re not particularly close (cause who wants to be close with someone who plays  _ candy crush  _ for fun?). But, T-B-H, it really does kind of seem he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And, like, Junmyeon’s incapable of lying, so Baekhyun gives it up. He’ll just find a weapon to threaten Yifan with until he tells him what he was gonna say. 

“Whatcha playin’?” Baekhyun immediately snaps out of interrogation mode, jumping out of his seat to lean over Junmyeon. He tucks his chin over his head. Dude’s hair is really soft. 

“What I always play…” Junmyeon sounds a bit sheepish as one hand comes up to pat Baekhyun’s cheek, the other returning to the mouse. “You don’t mind if I continue, do you?”

“Yes. I do mind.” Baekhyun waits a couple seconds for Junmyeon’s hand to come off the mouse and then, “No, kidding. I literally could not give any less of a shit.” He loves doing that to him. Though it’s kind of annoying how much of a suck up he is.

“Well, maybe you wanted to talk about something, I don’t know…” Junmyeon mumbles, face brightening as he immerses back into the game. 

“Since when do I want to talk to  _ you?”  _ Sass is the natural response, but then Baekhyun regrets that not because of Junmyeon’s face darkening again but rather shit, he right, Baekhyun  _ does  _ want to talk about something. But how does he do it without Junmyeon being suspicious?

Hold up. Who is he kidding? Junmyeon would never  _ dare  _ to have a negative thought about his members.

“Wait, right now, I actually do.” Baekhyun stands back upright, returning to a perch on the seat cause it’s comfy fuck you Minseok. “What’cha want for Christmas? I mean, I already got you something, but I’m wondering if it had been what you wanted.”

“Oh…” For some reason, Junmyeon’s face reddens. It’s really easy to see when he blushes cause his cheeks are huge. But unlike when Baekhyun first got here it’s not cause Junmyeon’s fat anymore he’s jacked as fuck. But the transformation still hasn’t reached his face. 

“What?” Baekhyun’s eyebrows furrow. “Did you want porn?”

“Wha–“ Wide eyes glance away from the screen for a moment before returning to the several colored jewels. His face is like the ruby one. “No, no, I just… um… I don’t…”

Baekhyun scoffs, grabbing the wrist of his mouse hand and yanking it off. “Yes you  _ do  _ want something and you’re going to tell me right now.” 

The timer at the corner of the screen runs out and Junmyeon’s face falters as he (Junmoney2112, what a fucking  _ dweeb)  _ sees he didn’t beat his high score, but whatever. More important things to worry about. 

“Um…” But, like, isn’t it a little weird, how nervous he is? He’s been? Like, sure, Junmyeon’s a suck up, as established, but he’s usually not  _ this _ flustered… maybe something happened to him. Maybe earlier he was walked in on jerking off or something. “I… I would have liked…”

“Come on, you can do it.” Baekhyun teases, though he does make sure to grab Junmyeon’s hand so he knows he’s joking. Junmyeon’s a bit sensitive. 

Junmyeon does that thing where he blushes and smiles and looks down, like he’s a schoolgirl who just got complimented by her crush. Or if we’re talking porno a schoolgirl whose blowjob was just complimented. Though usually the actors aren’t good enough to get the blush in. “Um…”

“Literally  _ anything.” _ Baekhyun urges, “Even if it’s crazy. Just your wildest dream gift.” 

At this, Junmyeon looks up. “Even if it’s crazy?”

_ Fuck,  _ Baekhyun thinks, he shouldn’t have said that. “Yeah. Even if it’s crazy.”

“Well…” Because if Junmyeon goes and says some shit like  _ I wanna go home,  _ there ain’t no way he and Luhan can do that even with all the time in the universe. 

“I think I’d like to see snow again.” Oh. That’s weird. Junmyeon looks back up, though he seems to have trouble making eye contact for some reason. “Just… I always liked the snow. You know.”  _ That rhymes too!  _ “But I haven’t seen it for more than a year now.”

Boom. Snow globe. 

_ Hentai, I’m thinking hetero schoolgirl, copy of CF Advanced Functions, and snow globe.  _ Baekhyun recounts the items on his list. That’ll work for him. For Luhan, he’ll just say he didn’t get input from Kyungsoo and books for Yifan and something snowy but not a snow globe for Junmyeon– honestly, just something sentimental for the dude will do. 

His job here is done. “Kay. That’s nice. Any idea where Jongjong is?” Junmyeon looks at him, face a bit confused and for some reason kind of hurt, so Baekhyun adds, “The baby one.”

“Oh, um, no, I’m sorry.” It’s the weirdest thing how Junmyeon always actually  _ looks  _ and  _ sounds  _ like he feels bad when it’s something so trivial. “If I see him around and I see you later, I’ll let you know.” 

And then boom, transition, and Baekhyun finds The Baby One at the gymnasium pumping iron. Jongin’s honestly to  _ die _ for. He’s so gorgeous and muscular and his voice is the nicest sound, but it would feel weird to like, like him or something. His childish personality, unfortunately, makes it impossible for Baekhyun to feel anything towards him that’s not wishing he had his body and formulating plans in his head to steal it. It’s not fair. Why does a stupid baby mind have to be in  _ such  _ a visual?

“Jongjong!” Baekhyun shouts from across the room, skipping over to Jongin who drops the weight (nearly on his foot, but he literally doesn’t notice) to wave excitedly. He’s got such a nice smile, too. Kid is barely fifteen but he’s built like a whole ass god. 

“Hi Hyung.” Now over his initial excitement, Jongin picks back up the weight and continues at it. Between them, the last week has started off a bit awkward because, like said earlier, Luhan had given a massive wedgie but then blamed it on Baekhyun and Jongin was stupid enough to  _ believe  _ him, so Jongin spared him nothing other than pouts and something that looks like it’s supposed to be a glare for a couple days after, but now it seems he’s completely forgotten about it. Wouldn’t be surprised if he had, T-B-H.

“Oh, Hyung,” Suddenly goes Jongin, a frown crossing his face. Baekhyun goes back on what he was just thinking and damn, does Jongin still hate him? But apparently not because he says, “My shoe’s untied, here, could you hold this?” And then something’s given to Baekhyun so heavy he immediately has to latch both hands onto it for his toes to not be crushed. His eyes widen as he straightens up, not daring to even try to lift it cause he knows his arms are gonna snap.

Okay, so maybe he had misled earlier about that getting bulky as fuck part. He’s just been enjoying those Christmas cookies.

But it’s not fair. Jongin doesn’t even need to shave yet but his arms are  _ huge  _ macho man arms. He bends down to tie his shoe, then jumping back up with that grin he always has. “Thanks,” He takes the dumbbell back, then doing that thing again where he straight up drops it with no reaction whatsoever. Baekhyun, however, reacts because that almost hit his foot and he screeches as Jongin’s talking again like it hadn’t even happened.

“You know, Hyung,” Jongin steps closer to him, lifting a hand to the top of his head and then sliding it over Baekhyun’s head. “I’m taller than you now, I think!”

“No you’re not.” Baekhyun lifts on his toes slightly to decrease the angle, but it’s no use. Jongin catches it and pushes him down by the shoulders, smile widening as he looks down at him, because maybe Baekhyun has always flaunted the couple inches he had on him when he first got here to compensate for his jealousy of Jongin’s physique. 

“Don’t cheat. I’m taller now.”

“Whatever.” Baekhyun rolls his eyes, taking a step back so he doesn’t have to look up. “I’m still growing. I’ll catch right up to you.”

Because he’s  _ not _ going to be five foot eight for the rest of his life. He’s gonna get tall like Yifan, six foot something and sexy as hell, and then Jongin will regret this moment. 

“Okay, Hyung~” Jongin’s eyes fold into crescents as he pokes him in the shoulders, then turning around and doing one of those jumpy-turny things he likes to do cause Baekhyun doesn’t know. It’s probably a dancer thing. But they always look dope as shit so Baekhyun’s not complaining. 

“By the way, Jonginnie,” Baekhyun rolls the dumbbell with his foot. He decides to just go for it, Jongin won’t think anything otherwise. That’s why he had chosen to ask him, after all. “What’cha want for Christmas?”

“Me?” Jongin turns around, eyes brightening. It almost seems he had rehearsed it or something, the way he looks up and then says, “I want a… bear onesie… hmm… and you will find it in room…  _ what was…  _ oh! I want a bear onesie and you will find it in room three oh nine six!”

Now that’s  _ just  _ a bit weird.

Baekhyun’s eyes narrow. Why does it sound like the time Dae had told Jongin to tell him that he was depressed and Dae was the only help so Baekhyun should get off the Exofighter game and let Dae play with him? It’s similar in the way he looks up to memorize it and seems far too pleased with himself to have just spoken a normal sentence. 

“Oh, well…” Baekhyun wipes any suspicion off his face. “I had already gotten your presents. It’s Christmas eve, you know…”

“No you didn’t.” Baekhyun’s heart stops.

“Um,  _ what?” _

At the confrontational expression, it must be, Jongin gets scared and his eyes widen as he quickly says, “Wait, no, you did. Never mind.”

_ “What?”  _ Now this  _ definitely _ isn’t normal. “Jongin, why are you acting so weird?”

“I’m– I’m not.” A red-faced absolute liar Jongin stutters. Jongin, along with Junmyeon and Zitao, are the worst liars here.

The best liar, meanwhile, takes a step towards Jongin who has stopped twirling around to shake his head profusely.

_ “Jongin,”  _ Baekhyun does that thing Kyungsoo does and dips his tone. It avails a similar effect of Jongin’s eyes widening and his sunshine smile fading. “I know you’re hiding something. What is it?”

“Nothing!” Jongin retorts far too loudly for it to be the truth. He must know this, too, because an expression as if anticipating imminent death takes his features.

Awe, he knows Baekhyun so well.

Not even a millisecond after that scared countenance takes place, Baekhyun jumps at him. He’ll tackle him to the ground and force him to tell him. Even though Jongin’s stronger than him, he’s too scared to hurt anyone unless it’s in sparring. Except, however, Baekhyun never ends up actually tacking Jongin because as he’s in midair, the boy disappears and Baekhyun plants face first into the matted floor, ankle slamming down hard on that dumbbell.

Damn, he knows Baekhyun  _ too  _ well. 

But, like, Luhan also thinks it’s a little weird when Baekhyun tells him how he acted.

“Um, yeah, strange,” Luhan sits up from where he was sprawled out on the couch, eyes narrowing. Baekhyun’s at the other arm of it, perched in a squat (shut up Minseok,  _ shut up). _ They’re back in the rec room. Chanyeol had just left after taking the last candy cane from the tree, which means Junmyeon will probably be in here pretty soon to put more in so they make sure to stay vigilant. 

“Zitao also acted a bit weird.”

“Wha?” Baekhyun’s lips part. “What do you mean?” 

“Well, he seemed to know what I was talking about before I even said the word Christmas.” And wait, wasn’t  _ Yifan  _ the same way? Saying he didn’t want anything before Baekhyun even asked?

But also, like, “Well, it’s literally Christmas eve. So everyone’s thinking about Christmas.”

“Oh…” All the suspicion leaves Luhan’s face and Baekhyun’s stomach. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“I know.”

“Shut up. And also,” Luhan glances at the presents, “I know where to get our wrapping paper and stuff. Minseok mentioned it was in room… room three oh nine six.”

“Really?” Baekhyun recognizes the number. “No way! That’s where Jongin wanted his bear onesie!”

“Oh damn,” Two grins, “they’ve really made it too easy.”

“I think the universe is in our favor.” Baekhyun puts his hands together and bows slightly, getting a chuckle. 

Luhan looks up to the ceiling in thought, “So Jongin wants a bear onesie… I suppose I can find a cute teddy bear somewhere. I mean, he’s got five of them already, so what’s one more? And then Chanyeol wanted a book, a copy of… RF advanced functions, whatever the hell that means–“

_ “No way!”  _ Baekhyun gasps again. “Yifan wanted a copy of  _ CF  _ advanced functions! I bet they’ll be in the same place.”

“Brooooo~” Luhan lifts up a foot for a high-five and Baekhyun slaps it. 

“We really out here winning.” More and more anxiety flushes away as they continue to talk. “And then Kyungsoo, I’m gonna get him hentai, but–“

“Hentai?” Luhan’s eyebrows raise.  _ “He  _ has it too?”

“I know. I regret it.” Baekhyun responds to the look on his face, “But it gives me a present for him, so it’s good. And then I have a feeling he’d just like some techno stuff to do whatever he does or maybe books. But he’s probably read like everything here. So techno stuff. And then Junmyeon said he wanted it to snow so I figured I’d get a snowglobe and you could get, like…”

_ Oh! _ I have this one ring laying around somewhere. It’s got a tiny little snowglobe-like thing on it, but it’s not an actual snowglobe.” Luhan then chuckles, “Bro, we’re like those memes that are like: when you copy your friend’s homework but they say to change it a little.”

Baekhyun breaks into a smile, “Yeah. But you’re the copier, just so you know. What’d the boyfriend’s want?” 

“They had some  _ very  _ weird requests…” Baekhyun’s interest peaks when he sees Luhan’s face redden just a bit. “I’m just gonna pretend I don’t know what it’s for, but they said… ropes… and a whip… and anything leather…”

It definitely makes Luhan uncomfortable, but Baekhyun bursts out into laughter. Though, in reality, he’s a little jealous of Minseok and Dae. He’s always been. He has no one to do all that with… his sex life was cut off at a measly fifteen (that started at fourteen) while Minseok and Dae can still do and experiment with anything and everything they want. 

“So sex stuff. Got it.” Baekhyun shakes off the thought like he always does. Though the saddest part is that Dae had once acquiesced to his participation but ended up kicking him out halfway and then Baekhyun never was welcome again. 

“And another thing, Chanyeol,” Luhan wastes no time in moving on. “He also said astronomy books basically. So thinking you just go and find something with ‘star’ in it.” 

“Porn star.”

“…You’re not funny.” Luhan says after an elongated stare. Because he says he’s not funny, Baekhyun giggles to prove him wrong. “Shut up. You’re not even laughing for real.”

“You think I was joking?” Baekhyun puts his hands on his chest, thinning his lips as he darts his gaze to the sides _. “Kay…” _

“Shut up.  _ Anyway,  _ Zitao said he wanted clothes that actually fit him, cause RF and CF haven’t done shit to accommodate his growth spurt and he doesn’t know where to get them. So we can just go find him stuff.”

“Ah, really?” Zitao’s  _ also  _ grown taller than Baekhyun in the past couple months he’s been here. But Baekhyun’s still growing, so it’s kay. “I was thinking of getting him a Korean textbook.”

“Come on, don’t be mean.” Luhan will agree with Baekhyun on, like, almost _ anything  _ other than his complaints about Zitao’s language struggle. Both him and Yifan. They scold him whenever he pokes fun at it. 

“I think it’s the nicest thing I could do, actually.”

“Sure, by itself,” Luhan meets his gaze, “but coming from  _ you?  _ Who constantly ridicules him? He’d just be offended.”

“Blah blah blah, he’s just–“  _ Woosh! _ “–being sensitive.”

_ “Who’s being sensitive?” _

Both Baekhyun and Luhan jump at the new voice, Baekhyun especially so because it’s that exact sensitive person who entered. Zitao’s sharp eyes are even sharper in inquisition.

“Yifan.” Baekhyun quickly fabricates. “Called him a big bitch and then he shunned me.”

Zitao takes a moment to process (which Baekhyun  _ swears  _ hasn’t gotten any faster), “Oh…” And then he proceeds to the couch. In front of the couch is a coffee table where Junmyeon and Yifan keep restocking sugar cookies, though Baekhyun always does some good work on them right after. As Zitao has his eyes on the last one, obviously gonna go for it, Baekhyun picks it up and shoves it in his mouth whole.

The newbie watches in chagrin as Baekhyun happily eats the treat in front of him, making sure to emphasize each chew with smiling cheeks. But don’t get him wrong, it’s not that Baekhyun hates Zitao or anything, in fact, he’s actually pretty dope with the kung-fu skills and he’s super adorable, but Baekhyun has grown accustomed to torturing EXO’s newest member. 

It started with Chanyeol, who arrived silver-haired and sobbing his heart out about two months after he and Jongdae came. Baekhyun found satisfaction in teasing the dude to no end, cause each reaction was just so big and emotional– like, one time Baekhyun pretended to cry and it was obviously fake but then Chanyeol went and  _ actually  _ cried (and this was like, maybe two weeks of knowing each other). 

Kyungsoo, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He was a challenge. Almost everyone, whether they admitted it or not, competed to befriend him. It’s cause he literally did  _ not  _ speak for an entire month. A whole month he did not utter a single word despite everyone’s attempts to get him to say something, make him laugh, wow him with their powers. Baekhyun won this competition when he joined him in the shower and Kyungsoo said his first words:  _ “Get out or I’ll pummel you to a bloody pulp”.  _ For the weeks that followed, Kyungsoo spoke to him and him only, but then Jongin came and Kyungsoo had discovered he could talk to other people and they are ‘better company’ or whatever but whatever, Baekhyun didn’t care. Doesn’t.

Cause Jongin was freaking adorable but also so enviously good looking and Baekhyun took him under his wing immediately. He quickly discovered a similar naivety like Chanyeol, but, like,  _ way  _ more, and it was the funniest thing telling Jongin all this crazy stuff and having him believe it. And also those couple weeks of Jongin struggling with his power and teleporting into walls was always hilarious. Though, soon, Kyungsoo found more of that ‘better company’ in the form of  _ stealing _ Jongin from him. 

And then Zitao came. He was similar in the cute but has some super badass quality about him way, but Baekhyun just could never get too close to him cause he can’t speak Korean good enough to have any kind of personality. It’s not even fun trying to tell him that when he’s eighteen he’ll start being farmed for semen for alien-human breeding (“What? Sea men? I’m not on farm… I’m on spaceship.”) He was also lowkey depressed for like three months and it’s only recently he’s looked happy enough to bully. 

Kay but like anyway, Zitao just watches as Baekhyun finishes the whole thing. Baekhyun pats a hand on his stomach as he sits up, letting out a whimsical sigh. Zitao’s glaring by now. Kid also has like a really intimidating face. His eyes are sharp like Minseok’s, but Minseok looks like a ten-year-old while Zitao looks like he could kill him if he wanted to and wants to. But he usually hesitates to use his martial arts on Baekhyun unless Baekhyun’s gone too far. Hence, he always dances at the line of Zitao’s tolerance.

“Sorry, did you want that one?” 

“Baek,” Luhan scoffs, “you’re an asshole. I  _ know  _ you ate that one just because he wanted it. And you’re over here wondering why you’re getting so fat.”

“Yah!” Baekhyun’s jaw drops as he kicks at Luhan’s legs. “I’m not!”

“You are.” Zitao speaks up and Baekhyun’s indignance goes to  _ mortification. _

“Who are you to talk,  _ skeleton?” _ Baekhyun doesn’t kick at Zitao or anything though. “Just cause I ain’t fifty pounds don’t mean I’m fat. Y’all jus' jelly I got ass.” 

Most of the time, Zitao doesn’t really get what he says. Baekhyun knows it’s cause he speaks fast and kind of differently, but, like, that’s not  _ his  _ fault. It’s just how everyone around him always spoke and he ain’t gonna change that for no spaceship boys. 

“Shut up, skinny.” Baekhyun simplifies, and then Zitao’s rather lost face turns into a scowl.

“What’cha doing, Tao?” Luhan switches the subject, giving Baekhyun a kick to the side. It doesn’t really hurt but Baekhyun lets out a dramatic cry and folds into himself anyway cause fuck Luhan. 

“I came to… I like it in here. Nice decoration, it gives a really comfortable…”

“Mood?” Luhan suggests. “Feeling? Sensation?”

“Orgasm?” Baekhyun gets kicked  _ again _ . 

“Really comfortable feeling, yeah.” Zitao turns around to go to the tree, crouching down at the presents. The ends of his pant legs rise up to his shins and damn Luhan wasn’t kidding, bitch needs new clothes. “Christmas always make me happy. Makes me happy. Um…” He picks up one of the gifts, studies it, and then puts it back down and twists to face them on the couch. “Lu-hyung, you tell me that Baekhyun plans with you for surprise. So he knows what I’m doing?”

“Yup.” Luhan says but Baekhyun actually doesn’t but then he explains so never mind, “So at four tomorrow, cause you know Minseok always gets up at five, us three will meet and then Zitao will pause time for everyone else at the dorms while we go prepare the surprise. We’ll have as much time as we need, and then we’ll return to the dorms and he’ll resume everything and  _ voila, _ Christmas made ten times better from Lu-Baek.”

“Baek-Lu.” Baekhyun corrects, “You always put the dom in the first syllable.” He doesn’t give Luhan any time to react, “And that sounds like a plan!” 

_ “Dom?” _ Zitao looks up in question.

“Domino–“

“Dominant–“ Baekhyun sees Luhan’s fingers twitch and he doesn’t even need to look behind to know the movie cases are in the air. “I mean domino. You know, those blocks with the dots on ‘em.”

“O…kay…” Zitao looks like he’s trying to make meaning out of it but ends up shaking his head. “Well, can you guys now tell me surprise? What surprise is?” 

“Nope.” Luhan shakes his head, glancing at Baekhyun with an impish smile when Zitao turns around to put back the present. Baekhyun returns it. It’s always fun being devious. 

“Why?” Zitao then lowers from the crouch to a sit, facing them. “Baekhyun-hyung, you tell me?” 

“Nuh-uh.” Baekhyun shakes his head. “It’s called a surprise for a reason.” 

“Well…” Zitao looks down as he processes, “I am help you guys. So I should know surprise at least. Or how do I know I’m help something good?”

“Um, cause we’re fucking awesome?” Baekhyun answers like it’s obvious. Cause it is.

“We’re already going a bit off of the plan having to ask someone to help.” Luhan answers like Baekhyun  _ hadn’t  _ just given an adequate response. “So the least we can do is still make sure you’ll take joy in the surprise. You know?”

“Okay…” Zitao nods. He does that thing where he sits for a little while, thinking, and then picking his head back up. “Also. Kyungsoo and Junmyeon making Christmas dinner– no, I mean, Christmas eve dinner. But I think they make Christmas dinner too.”

“Oh, sick!” Baekhyun’s stomach full of cookies is suddenly empty at the thought of Kyungsoo’s cooking. Like, yeah, fuck Kyungsoo, he’s a bitch, but when he’s in the kitchen… “Do you know what it is? Is he gonna make deviled eggs? Tell him he better. Bitch literally  _ used  _ to do it till he found out how much I like them…”

“I don’t know.” Zitao shrugs. “I think… traditional Christmas dinner. Turkey and vegetables and pastries and stuff. Like they do west. And cookies."

“Oh, cookies?!” Baekhyun’s stomach empties even more. Now he’s starving. He looks to the coffee table and  _ who _ ate all the damn cookies?!

For some reason, Luhan gives him another kick, “See what I mean? Fatass. It’s an addiction.”

Baekhyun’s jaw drops once again, especially because  _ both _ Luhan and Zitao are laughing, “I literally– I–  _ everyone  _ likes cookies! Stop laughing! I’ll kill you.” 

“I’d like to see you try again,” Luhan makes an act of gnawing at his fingers and Baekhyun relieves the pain from earlier today. He had followed Kyungsoo’s advice somewhat and popped them to get the blood out, but there wasn’t that much to begin with cause it hadn’t been too long later and now there’s bandages over his fingers that are slightly wrinkled cause he had to take them off earlier to do some stuff. 

“I’ll tie a plastic baggie over your head tonight and your dead body will be the Christmas surprise.” Baekhyun’s way-too-morbid threat only avails more laughter, so he scoffs, leaning off the couch to grab one of the movies and chuck it at Luhan before storming out.

_ Just  _ as the two sides of the doors meet shut the same case smacks him in the back of the head.

And, even worse, there are  _ no _ deviled eggs! When Baekhyun arrives at the kitchen a couple hours later, he has two priorities: 1) deviled eggs, and 2) letting Dae know his count. He pursues the first by pushing his way through Junmyeon and Yifan and Minseok, hovering over the giant buffet, scanning each and every plate in search for his favourite little white ovals with the yellow in them. As he anticipates, he doesn’t find them, but that doesn’t make him any less pissed.

“Yah, Do Kyungsoo!” Baekhyun confronts Kyungsoo who’s for once not wearing all black cause he’s got a white apron on. He's at the stove stirring some kind of, like, stuffing? 

“What?” Kyungsoo gives him a bored tone and a bored glance.

“Why aren’t there eggs?!  _ My  _ eggs!”

“We didn’t have any.” Kyungsoo states simply, which basically means Baekhyun’s at a dead end.

So, he goes to cook number two, headbutting him in the chest mid-conversation and walking until he's out-conversation. 

“Yes?” Junmyeon’s brows are raised, eyes flickering back to Yifan and Minseok who avert their eyes when Baekhyun looks.

“You guys didn’t make no deviled eggs…” Baekhyun pouts. “Deviled eggs are my favourite… you know that…”

“Oh.” Junmyeon’s eyes widen and then there are hands on his shoulders. “Baek, I’m sorry. I– I didn’t think of it. I usually don’t cook. I’m so sorry, I’ll remember next time. But– but Kyungsoo made some some egg skillet. I’m sure you’ll like that?”

“Wait– hold up.” Baekhyun stops his sad act cause, “You guys  _ had  _ eggs?”

“Yeah..." Junmyeon answers, voice still ridden with guilt. “There– there still are some– I can try to make you some now, though I don’t really know how…”

_ “No.”  _ Rage fills Baekhyun. “No. It’s fine. Bye.”

“Wait, Baek–“ Junmyeon’s voice falls in with the others as Baekhyun stomps back through Minseok and Yifan (and Minseok kicks him in the butt, he’ll get him for that later), to re-confront Kyungsoo. No, a dirty fucking  _ liar. _

“You  _ do  _ have eggs, you lying bastard!” To check further, Baekhyun paces to the fridge a couple feet away, opening it to  _ boom _ , the white egg cartons. He resists the urge to take them out and start throwing them at the dirty fucking liar. Dirty fucking stupid liar. Asshole.

“Oh.” Is all Kyungsoo says, but Baekhyun sees it, the way his large lips tug upwards. Fucking…

“I hate you, just so you know.” Baekhyun hisses, trying to control the fire in his chest. “And now you literally have no excuse.  _ Why  _ didn’t you make deviled eggs?!”

And then, the audacity of this dude, Kyungsoo  _ rolls his eyes.  _ Rolls his eyes!

“My god…” Kyungsoo shakes his head like he’s talking to a spoiled child. He thinks he’s  _ so  _ much better than him. “Hyung, I have told you, I’m  _ not _ going to waste my time making something only one person eats.”

“But I eat them all!” Baekhyun protests, cause he literally does! Be it five, ten, or seventy-nine  _ (that  _ was quite the night), Byun Baekhyun  _ always  _ finishes his deviled eggs! “So it’s literally the same result. They’re eaten.”

“It’s still an imposition.” Kyungsoo doesn’t even bother saying  _ excuse me  _ as he crosses Baekhyun to open a drawer and take out one of those cooking mitten things. He continues as he opens the oven (also not giving Baekhyun a warning so he has to jump away), taking out a big pie looking thing, “You are capable of eating other foods. If you like the eggs so much, then you can make them yourself.”

Baekhyun scowls, “But I don’t know how!” F-Y-I, he hadn’t actually discovered this love for deviled eggs until recently.

“Well, then you can figure it out.”

“But I’ll  _ never _ make them like you do!” Recently as in a couple months ago when Do Kyungsoo served deviled eggs. Then Baekhyun met the L-O-H-L.

“Sorry.” Kyungsoo says in the  _ least  _ sorry way, shrugging as he goes at the pie with a knife. Baekhyun’s half convinced to shove that stupid pie in his face, but then he realizes the pan it’s in is probably smoking hot and not in the B-B-H way. 

“When I starve and die, it’s your fault. Remember that. Bitch.” Is Baekhyun’s weak attempt at eliciting guilt before moving onto his priority number two, which is jumping onto Dae as soon as he gets in here and dragging him away from the crowd.

“Dude.” Baekhyun then pauses, “Okay, one, you cute.” Dae’s brows angle upwards as his eyes crescent. “And two, I just did it again before this. So that’s nine times today. And I plan to later. Got anything better?”

Dae’s cute little happy smile is replaced with narrowed eyes and thinned lips. “Baek… how do you even…  _ nine  _ times?”

“Yes,  _ nine  _ times.” Why does Dae look at him like that? They literally  _ agreed _ on this challenge. Like, maybe it was more for the joke, but, like, it gives him the excuse to feel great. Baekhyun has always had a high libido, and despite not even having his own bedroom (save for Exoplanet, but that’s another story for another time), he still manages several times a day. It’s easy. He just goes to this one room or one of the not-really-used bathrooms. Though, typically, after enough time of doing it in a given place, it becomes a Horny Room, AKA whenever Baekhyun enters he gets hard out of habit. This has caused for some awkward mishaps, so he makes sure to relocate Horny Rooms often. Except, the thing is, the Horny Rooms don’t go away. They're only created… So like Baekhyun kind of has this problem of being at least five percent sexually aroused wherever he goes. 

But like, that’s embarrassing. Don't tell anyone. 

“So you don’t got anything better?” Baekhyun quirks a brow, “Man, you’re  _ sucking.  _ And not even your own dick.” 

“Baek…” Dae’s voice softens, “I know you told me to not ask again, but are you  _ sure  _ you don’t–“

_ “Yes _ I’m sure I don’t have a masturbation addiction!” But Baekhyun says this kind of loudly, so Yifan and Minseok both give him weird looks and heat rushes everywhere except his favourite part. 

Dae’s laughing his ass off when Baekhyun shoves him, “You’re just jealous cause you can’t make no commitment. Fucking prude.  _ Once a day _ prude ass.”

“Um, I got  _ three  _ today, thank you very much.” Dae shoves him back.

“That’s a  _ third _ of what I got. Don’t you be proud.” 

“I suppose I’ll have plenty of time to catch up when your dick falls off.”

“Me and my nine inches are perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

“That’s what they all say. Until their dick falls off.”

“Look, Dae,” Baekhyun slides his arm across his best friend’s shoulders even though they were just shoving each other, “I know you’re jelly, but stop with your fantasies of me losing my monster. He’s not going anywhere.”

“You talk about your crotch like it’s another being.” Dae gently smacks his hand to the area and Baekhyun cringes away.

“It’s big enough to be one.” Baekhyun grins. He loves bragging. Especially when it’s about this and to Dae. It’s also fun to do it with Minseok, but with him it’s in more of a sadistic manner, cause, like… yeah. “And we’re best friends. Bester friends than you and I. If you’re gonna get rid of him then you’re gonna have to get rid of  _ me, _ your bestie.”

“Ah.” Dae nods, “Okay. This’ll be easier than I thought, then.”

It takes Baekhyun a moment, but then  _ no he did  _ not  _ just say that  _ and Baekhyun’s jaw drops, “Hey!” He goes to throw punches. It works for a little as Dae keeps backing away until he’s against the wall and Baekhyun’s still hitting him, but then Yifan comes and pulls them apart and  _ fuck  _ big tall people he wishes they never existed. 

The dinner is, like,  _ okay… _ there aren’t any devilled eggs, no, and Kyungsoo goes to comment on ‘an entitled brat yelling at me earlier for not making  _ them _ a certain dish’, and that’s quickly revealed to be Baekhyun, but at least the egg skillet is good (even if he tells Kyungsoo it’s the most disgusting that’s ever touched on his tongue). He doesn’t talk as much as normal through the dinner, more focused on eating because eating’s great and sharing glances with Luhan cause, like, they’re secret agents, bro. 

And also trying not to panic when people say shit like:

“I wonder what RF and CF got me for presents. I mean, they’re robots, it probably only took them a second to think of it. Though they still had their presents there before anyone else. Wonder what would happen if they decided to do it the last second...”

And:

“We should have a competition to see who gave the best presents. And then that person gets the rest of the candy cane supply.”

And:

“I really hope you guys like what I got you… I thought hard about it...”

And:

“Hyung, can we do that thing where everyone opens one early? Please?” 

And:

“Man, it took me so long thinking and searching I had started Christmas preparing in August.” 

“Same here.”

“September for me.”

“October.”

Whilst he and Luhan exchange inconspicuous looks and Baekhyun makes the ever so often penis joke to let everyone know he is still alive. With all the talking about Christmas and presents and having actually gotten people presents, dinner takes literally  _ forever,  _ and by the end of it Baekhyun has stress-eaten so much he’s almost dropped dead from, like, that fatigue you get after you eat a lot. But it’s kay cause Dae and Minseok are great and carry him half-asleep back to the dorms, taking his shoes off and tucking him in but also Minseok poking his stomach and saying he’s bloated or whatever and then they kiss him goodnight as if they’re his moms or something and then Baekhyun’s, like, boom, asleep.

When he’s not boom asleep is once at some random time in the middle of the night when he takes like a five pound shit, and then again at some not-so-random time when someone puts his cold as fuck hands on the back of his neck until he’s freezing and jolts awake. Through a tired daze he expects it’s Minseok, so he doesn’t dare hit him, but then realizes it’s Luhan so he smacks him in the face so hard Jongin stirs and mumbles something before settling back into Chanyeol. Baekhyun had tried sleeping with Chanyeol once. Never again. With  _ anyone. _

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart.” Baekhyun whispers once they’re out in the hallway. During the first time he woke up, Baekhyun had changed into more comfortable clothes, so now he’s in red flannel bottoms and a black tee. Luhan’s in the same but they’re blue flannel bottoms. And Zitao, who exits the EXO-M dorms looking less than conscious, is also in the same thing but they’re yellow bottoms. Everyone’s hair is a mess. 

“Your breath stinks.” Luhan scrunches his nose, then hitting him after Baekhyun decides to open his mouth wide and breathe in his face. But it’s not anywhere as hard as Baekhyun’s earlier hit, which still has a red mark on the guy’s cheek. 

“Your mom stinks.” 

“How do  _ you  _ know what my mom smells like?"

"Oh, just last night when we–"

_ “Are we going or what?” _ Snaps Zitao, though it’s barely discernible through the groggy voice and thick accent. Baekhyun mimics:

_ “Er weh gowaen o–“ _

“Yes, we are.” Luhan interrupts, elbowing him in the ribs. “So you’ve got time, like, stopped, right?”

“Moment.” Zitao gives up on trying to fix his hair. Now Baekhyun has zero idea how he does it, cause all he sees the kid do is hold his hands up slightly, seeming to tense up and relax. Baekhyun feels nothing in these moments, but Zitao then opens his eyes and says, “Go ahead. I stay here.” And apparently it’s that easy. Nice. (But Zitao  _ does _ spend almost every free second he has on his power, so Baekhyun supposes he isn’t too surprised).

Adrenaline rushes through every part of his body as he and Luhan exchange a simultaneous glance, a tacit grin before they race off towards the outward halls of the ship. That’s where everything will be. The thought that they’re pulling off such a dope ass plan makes him smile, even giggle at one point. It reminds him of Earth when he used to conspire the  _ best  _ schemes; at one point he had his entire school fretting over the mysterious signature  _ Babe<3  _ that was curiously found at every peculiar disaster. Of course, Baekhyun’s been mischievous here as well, but sooner or later the majority of his plots are discovered and he has to beg the robots (cause only the robots find out, that’s just how smart he is) to not tell. But they usually do anyway. 

“Okay.” Luhan says once they’re out of the main halls, AKA everything gets rectangular, thinner, and has doors with handles. “So let’s recount. Youngest to oldest. Jongin?”

“Bear stuff.”

“Zitao?”

“Uh…  _ oh! _ Right! Clothes! And a textbook!”

_ “Not _ the textbook, but yes. Kyungsoo?”

“Hentai and then random technology stuff.”

“Chanyeol?”

“Copy of RF… advanced functions.”

“Jongdae? And Minseok while we’re at it?”

“Sex stuff!” He wonders if he’ll find anything for himself… maybe he’ll steal it. Just to spite them.

“Baekhyun?”

_ “Baekhyun?”  _ Baekhyun asks, then stopping dead. His jaw drops as he realizes, “Wait, Lu, we never asked what  _ each other  _ wanted!”

“Oh my god,  _ right…”  _ Luhan stops and his mouth falls open as well, and shit, man, what do they do now?

“Well, honestly…” Luhan looks up, voice suggesting he’s about to let him down or like say he’s so sorry but his mother didn’t make it and he’ll receive the hospital bills in the mail. “After all of this work we’re already doing, I would think it a better gift to be free of getting another one…”

Except Baekhyun feels the same way so, “Okay, yeah, same, T-B-H… let’s give each other freedom, kay?”

“Yeah!” Luhan nods, then making to go on but Baekhyun grabs his wrist.

“But  _ wait! _ Also, a big fat smooch.” He grins, turning a cheek and lifting a pointed finger. “Right here. Give me a big fat smooch.” 

It’s a couple seconds of silence and Baekhyun wondering when he’s going to be hit. However, to his utter  _ holy shit, _ there’s soon a soft kiss to the cheek.

Baekhyun’s mouth hangs open as he turns to face Luhan, the, like,  _ straightest  _ dude here besides Kyungsoo who don’t like smooches or cuddles or  _ anything.  _ AKA this means a lot cause Luhan doesn’t give smooches. But like, he did.

“Bro.”

“Bro.”

_ “Bro!”  _ Baekhyun opens his arms wide, “Man, bring it–“

“Okay! Let’s go!” And then Luhan’s continuing, but Baekhyun doesn’t mind. He catches right up, putting a hand to his cheek and smiling. 

“Junmyeon?”

“Snowglobe and that thingy you said you had.” Luhan then digs into his pocket to show Baekhyun the little ornament. It’s a silver so bright it seems to be glowing (and he’s pretty sure it is), with a tiny glass dome on the top that has a singular snowflake inside. Suddenly, Baekhyun recalls this being Minseok’s a year or so ago. He’s pretty sure it had something to do with his powers, but whatever. 

“Yifan?” 

“Copy of  _ CF  _ Advanced Functions.” Baekhyun then recalls another detail, “Oh! And someone said room three oh nine six. For which things, again…?”

“The wrapping paper. And Jongin’s bear onesie. And if the onesie’s there, then so are other clothes.” Luhan nods to himself. “And then there’s a place I know a lot of books are stored…”

A door that looks just like all the others appears in Baekhyun’s head. “I think I know where you’re talking about.” They turn another corner. “Probs. Okay, so, like, we should split up. I’ll go to that room and you go to the book room. And then along the way we both look for the sex stuff and a snowglobe and whatever else. Kay?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” The sentence finishes just as they reach a part where the hall splits into two. Baekhyun checks the room nearby to see three oh eleven, and then down to the left eight and the right twelve. He goes to step in the right direction but then fucking  _ Luhan  _ goes to step in the left direction so they crash heads and bonk away with mutual groans. 

“Dude!” Luhan grits his teeth.

“No, _y_ _ ou.”  _ Baekhyun rubs his temples, “Get outta my way.”

“No,  _ you  _ get out of–“

“See-ya!” Baekhyun flips him off as he skips down the hall, but he’s not looking where he’s going so he trips on his own footing which is just  _ so  _ funny to Luhan who returns the hand gesture as he travels his way.

But bitches ain’t bother him, so,  _ anyway: _ three zero nine six. 

The fastest way to get there is running, so Baekhyun does just that. Yes, maybe he been eating double for the holidays (cause what  _ else  _ is he supposed to do when RF gives all this free time? He already plays way more video games and ups his cum-a-day count, but even with those there’s  _ still  _ several hours unoccupied), but it’s literally unnoticeable, they’re just being assholes, and Baekhyun’s still far more athletic than when he had first gotten here. 

Though B-B-H has always been stunning, before he had smoked and drank and ingested whatever he could get his hands on and his diet consisted of fast food and energy drinks, his metabolism doing the rest for his physique; T-B-H, it was only a matter of time before he’d become ugly as fuck, really. So it’s kind of a blessing in disguise, being forced here and off substances and into a healthy diet and working out and basically just actually taking care of himself. Dae’s similar in that way, but like on steroids (like, kind of  _ literally  _ too _ ). _

Dae probably would have died by now. Baekhyun still remembers the first time he saw him. Not even a week after his arrival, someone who wasn’t part of the 4-hot-figments-of-his-imagination (Baekhyun had still refused to believe it all– they still sometimes make fun of him for trying to tell Yifan to kiss him because “bitch, this is  _ my  _ dream, not yours. Now right here, on the lips, hot stuff.”) came in to occupy the bed across the medical unit that had been placed a day earlier. It’s not someone Baekhyun recognizes now, a trembling boy whose emaciated figure showed through the holes in several layers of thin rags, but it’s sure someone Baekhyun remembers. Though sometimes he catches glimpses of him when Dae gets serious, when the side of him comes out that always knows exactly what to do and exactly what to say, he always makes  _ anything  _ better; it’s all how fiercely he loves. Cause for most of his life love was the only thing he had. He used to have an older brother. ‘Used to’, cause there’s no way he’s alive anymore. Homelessness and autism don’t go well together. Especially not when you’ve lost the only thing that protects you. 

Baekhyun can't say anything similar of his own family though. If anything, his moms are better off without having to look after a kid who’d always be at one party or another. They work mainly in the fitness genre of pornography so they’re buff as fuck and used to scare – and at times beat – the shit out of anyone who messed with their son. They also used to always try to get Baekhyun to work out, but besides sex stuff Baekhyun was a lazy bitch back then. He wishes he had taken up their offer, spent more time with them. He wishes he had done (and not done) a  _ lot  _ of things. 

Okay so like anyway he reaches three oh nine six in about five minutes, though he’s broken a light sweat and there’s a stitch in his side. He doesn’t get where those things come from. He has tried to ask Minseok but all Minseok says is that they’re a myth and it’s all in his head and he’s just slacking. Fucking showoff, that guy. He’s like his moms. But when Baekhyun calls him a lesbian he gets punched.

Of course, the door has a padlock, but that’s nothing.  _ When in doubt, backwards lana.  _ Baekhyun repeats to himself as he puts in the passcode, the thing beeping and then a small little  _ click  _ coming from the door.

“Bingo~” He hums to himself as he turns the handle to enter an almost warehouse-type room full of racks and shelves and you know what? It kind of looks like a thrift store. In the center are several long racks lined parallel holding all sorts of clothes, and then at the sides are shelves with miscellaneous items everywhere. It still amazes Baekhyun simply how much  _ stuff  _ there is here. Like, it’s crazy they can all completely surprise each other at Christmas time despite living in the same exact enclosed space for years. 

“Kay, now… clothes, onesie, and wrapping paper, maybe a snowglobe and harnesses if we’re lucky,” Baekhyun directs, “Mmm… I think over–  _ shit!”  _

He  _ just  _ throws his arms out in front of him in time to avoid slamming his face into the ground. Outraged, Baekhyun snaps his neck back to the culprit, because  _ who  _ has the audacity to lay there in the middle of the god damn floor?!  _ Who?!  _

A snowglobe does. 

“Oh.” Baekhyun’s lips curl into a smile as he reaches for the trinket, inspecting it. It’s pretty, a little santa-town with candy-cane cabins and curved roofs and little people and  _ O-M-G,  _ a doggie! If Baekhyun likes this, Junmyeon will  _ love  _ this. How lucky he is, Baekhyun thinks as he spins it around, eyes flickering back to its former spot on the floor.

He then notices a slip of paper.

_ What’s this?  _ It must have been directly under the snowglobe. Baekhyun picks up a white note, finding it blank so he flips to the other side and then:

**_I know what you did._ **

_ “Um… _ no you don’t…” Baekhyun says, though what he’s really thinking is  _ dawg  _ what? _ No. What is  _ that  _ supposed to mean, ‘I know what you did’?  _ It’s not in any handwriting he recognizes– heck, it’s literally  _ printed  _ text, so he has no way at all to tell what it’s from. But it was under the snowglobe. The snowglobe that was in the center of the floor of room three oh nine six. Room three oh nine six where people told him to go…

Eh. Probs nothing.

Baekhyun pops back up and continues, discarding the note on the floor (there’s no environment to ruin so who cares about littering? Stupid little moving bots clean it anyway). Now there’s gotta be a bear onesie somewhere. He filters his vision to the color brown. It’s something he can do now. Ever since he started working on his power, his photographic not memory, but like, brain thing, envisioning, it’s so much better. But also he’s started to actually  _ have  _ a photographic memory. He’s forced to focus so much on what every single detail of something looks like that it’s like super easy to make images in his mind– and it’s getting better with his hands. But now he knows 'brown' is  _ way  _ too vague. There are all sorts of browns, high high light to mid high light to low high light to all the graduations between those, and browns with yellows or browns with blues or browns with reds, but none of those ‘colors’ really say anything. Not compared to the ten million colors (humans– he’ll have to learn about that of some aliens in the future) can see. But Baekhyun’s only really memorized all two hundred and fifty-six colors of the hexadecimal system (AKA when you go to a color picker website and it shows that big wheel, yeah, he knows all those), give or take some extras that have proven useful. But he still has trouble recreating them all.

Needless to say he finds his ‘browns’ pretty quick. He walks through each aisle once, eyes scanning for ‘brown’, taking a closer look, rejecting, and only it takes a quick skip through each to then find  _ exactly  _ what he’s looking for. 

Baekhyun lifts up an AAA9786 colored bear, though the stomach is CCC1B7 and the dye job isn’t perfect– in fact, it’s started to annoy him how much color inconsistencies he sees in objects, so there are AAA9785s and AAA9784s and CCC1B8s and CCC1B9s and others of the sort. It has little ears at the corners of the hood and honestly, he can’t  _ wait  _ to see Jongin in this. He’s gonna be so cute. 

He’s proceeding on trying to remember what size clothing Zitao is when he hears something hit the ground behind him.

It’s another slip of paper. 

This time, the worded side is up, typed in the same exact font in the same exact size. 

**_You won’t get away with this._ **

“Um… Yes I will…” Baekhyun mutters, but at this point it’s just to spite it. Why was there a note on  _ both  _ the snowglobe and the onesie? The two items Baekhyun had  _ planned  _ to get. In the room Jongin had specifically  _ told  _ him to go to?

But like, none of them have  _ any _ idea that he and Luhan are doing this, so what could it be? Could Luhan  _ himself  _ be playing a joke on him? No, Luhan’s not that clever.

This time, Baekhyun pockets the note as he continues on, feeling a bit put-off. Now it’s more distracting trying to find clothes for Zitao or alternatively sex stuff or alternatively alternatively a teddy bear cause he starts to get a bad feeling in his stomach. He knows it’s impossible that this plan would fail, Zitao literally  _ stopped time,  _ but he can’t help how he feels. 

More and more relief comes as Baekhyun finds Zitao’s (current) size and picks out random sweats and tees and not a single piece of paper falls out of any of them. He even finds a teddy bear in the corner without any note  _ anywhere,  _ and you know what? It’s just a big coincidence. Baekhyun laughs at himself for being ridiculous, cause there’s no way.

_ “Hey Baek!”  _ The call is synchronous with the turn of the door handle.

_ “Lu I found notes and I think we’ve been busted!” _ Baekhyun loses all his confidence as he rushes to the elder, dropping the droppable items in front of him (and gently placing down the snowglobe) and then shoving the note in his face.

“Um…” And now that Baekhyun looks, Luhan has two dictionary-sized books in his arms and something leathery with spikes over his shoulder that kind of turns him on just a little. 

“Baek…” Luhan takes the note, staring at it with wide eyes. Baekhyun is about to ask  _ what?,  _ but then he’s suddenly handed a piece of paper as well. Two of them. 

**_Think about who you’re trusting._ **

**_I wouldn’t do this if I were you._ **

“O-M-G…” Baekhyun mutters, then pointing, “Somewhere over there. It said, ‘I know what you did’. But like, none of this is me, I swear!”

“Well, it’s not me either!” Luhan looks just as freaked out and that’s  _ not  _ a good thing.

“Do– do you think…” Luhan’s nervous fingers fiddle the spike on one of the straps. “They somehow, like…  _ know?  _ And this is all a setup?”

_ “What?”  _ Baekhyun snorts. “No. That’s ridiculous, bro.”

“Okay, yeah, you’re right, bro.” Luhan shakes his head. “Let’s just wrap this shit and go. I found something for Kyungsoo as well, so I’m all set.”

“I got your clothes, too. And a teddy bear. I’ll grab a USB thing for Kyungsoo on the way back.” Baekhyun follows Luhan to wherever he’s going, except he soon realizes Luhan has as good of an idea where he’s going as he does. It seems Luhan realizes this too because he then stops and Baekhyun walks into him and Luhan turns and frowns.

“Wait, why we following  _ me?  _ Don’t you have the wrapping paper?”

“No. Didn’t find it.” Baekhyun frowns as well, taking a step back. “So I’m following you.”

“Well, I don’t know where it is.”

“Me neither.”

Luhan then stares at him like he’s stupid (which he’s not).  _ “Well,  _ then  _ maybe  _ we should go find it.”

And then Baekhyun stares at  _ him  _ like  _ he’s  _ stupid (which he  _ is!).  _ “That’s  _ what  _ I was just  _ doing.”  _

_ “No, _ you were just following me.” 

_“No,_ _you_ were just in my way.” Baekhyun makes a point of stepping around in front of him. “See?” 

“You’re literally just saying that cause–“

“Hush! You’re wasting time we could be searching.” And then Baekhyun turns on his heel and parts from Luhan who mumbles something he should be glad Baekhyun can’t make out. 

Baekhyun will win most fights against Luhan. In the hierarchy of EXO, Baekhyun’s up there in third place. First are Minseok and Zitao, cause Zitao’s got the skills of those kung fu master cartoon characters but Minseok’s like twice the size of him in terms of muscle. Jongin’s second, though that’s mostly cause he’s just never went all out cause Baekhyun doesn’t know he’s like a three year old. And then third is technically (technically as in its written down on that paper Minseok decided to tape on the gymnasium wall) Yifan, but it’s  _ actually  _ Baekhyun and Yifan’s just there cause he’s huge so he can just sit on Baekhyun and he’s done for which is like cheating you can’t use genetics to fight that’s not fair. And then fourth is Kyungsoo, who keeps getting stronger and stronger every day with his power but he’s small, following with Dae, ‘technically’ Baekhyun, Luhan who’s not only a bad fighter but stupid enough to think  _ biting _ is a battle tactic, and then Chanyeol and lastly Junmyeon (sometime in September Junmyeon literally had a whole ass breakdown when he gave Jongdae a nosebleed and hasn’t sparred since). But that list hasn’t been updated in, like, forev. So just so you know Baekhyun’s in third. Okay? He  _ is.  _

As he’s thinking about how right, he should get revenge on Luhan, but when and  _ where  _ should he bite him back?, said Luhan calls him from the other side of the room. Baekhyun shakes off thoughts of castration as he heads over to, surprisingly, see a bit of a strange expression.

And then another note.

This time, it’s right in the middle of an open sheet of wrapping paper.

**_Use me to wrap presents! :)_ **

“Oohhhhhh!” The realization dawns upon Baekhyun as he dumps his arms of stuff in a little compartment at the side of what looks like a sewing machine but instead of sewing it’s for wrapping paper. There is a claw above a flat area where a roll of wrapping paper is distributed. Luhan wastes no time in doing the same. “This is all probably just leftover stuff from someone else! I mean, look at it. This machine everyone probably used to wrap their stuff, so then someone left this there!”

“Yeah. That makes sense. Just us being late.” Luhan nods emphatically, but his voice sounds a little nervous which makes Baekhyun a little nervous as Luhan places the copy of CF advanced functions in place of the note. He rises up on his toes to smack the big red button that’s on the crane, where Baekhyun guesses the mechanical fingers will come down to wrap up the presents. 

Or blow torch their entire stash of gifts.

Baekhyun has to blink. And blink again. And again. And again. Because he’s  _ pretty  _ sure he did  _ not  _ just see what he just saw– but, like, he did… instead of any mechanical fingers, the claw shoots out something E25822 and everything around it. An inferno so big blasts straight into the book that both Baekhyun and Luhan have to jump back to not be licked by the flame, which then shifts itself to the compartment of all their  _ other  _ gifts and three seconds later, all Baekhyun and Luhan had gathered is a pile of ashes.

A pile of ashes.

They both just  _ stare, _ wide-eyed, jaws agape, Baekhyun’s arms burning slightly because Luhan had jumped into them out of fright. Baekhyun blinks several more times, trying to process it: their presents were just  _ burned to a crisp. Burned to a crisp by a machine. Burned– _

_ “Oh my god!”  _ A subsequent yelp of  _ OW!  _ sounds when Baekhyun drops Luhan, stepping over the body to confront the ashes. Maybe the machine isn’t done spitting fire but like Baekhyun isn’t worried about that right now as he sifts his hands through the ashes of the copy of CF advanced functions, through the ashes of Jongin’s teddy bear and bear onesie and Zitao’s clothes that fit and Junmyeon’s snowglobe and snowflake ring and MinDae’s sex stuff and Kyungsoo’s techno scraps and Chanyeol’s book and holy fucking  _ shit! _

“It– it– it just–“ Baekhyun sputters, not believing his eyes even though he’s got the best vision of any human. 

_ “No!”  _ Wails Luhan, who’s up by now, shoving him out of the way to dig his hands through the black substance, probably trying to find even a  _ scrap _ of something intact.

“It… it…” It just  _ burned  _ their presents. What are they gonna do now?! There– there isn’t more, is there? Baekhyun looks back around the room. But everything had been placed so  _ conveniently!  _ There is no way they’ll be able to find all of that again, is there? On the ship there is only one copy of not even all the books, they’d have to go to Exoplanet, and when the hell is Baekhyun ever going to find a  _ snowglobe?!  _ Let alone a bear onesie! The only present still… well,  _ present,  _ is Baekhyun’s hentai. But he’s  _ not  _ going to get everyone hentai! They don’t deserve it. (And there’s children and he’d be scolded for doing such and yeah).

“Baek…” Luhan turns around, everything from his fingertips to his elbow dark with soot. He looks as mortified as Baekhyun feels, “It… it just…”

“I  _ know _ it just!” Baekhyun  _ finally  _ closes his mouth, running a stressed hand through his hair as he leans back over the machine table. “It  _ just!” _ __

“What do we do?!” A panicked tug on his arm. “What do we do?!”

“I– I don’t know?!” Baekhyun then looks up to the red button, maybe he should press it again? Undo it all?

_ “BRO!”  _ Luhan screeches as Baekhyun presses it again and the same exact process repeats, except this time instead of jumping into Baekhyun’s arms Luhan shoves him so hard he nearly falls. The bright flame shines against the frustrated tears in his eyes, and shit, if Luhan starts crying then  _ Baekhyun’s  _ gonna start crying! He can’t do that!

This time, the ashes are reduced by half. AKA pressing the big red button didn’t help.

“Our… our presents…” Luhan’s voice breaks into something worryingly delicate, all anger gone from his face as he stares at the machine. “Gone…”

“It… but it said… the note said…” Baekhyun picks up the piece of paper that Luhan had just thrown to the floor. “Use me to wrap presents…  _ and  _ there’s a smiley face. It… it  _ lied…” _

“It was obviously a sham in the first place, you dimwit.” Luhan snatches the note from him, looking at it for a moment before his hand balls into a fist, crumpling it. “Baekhyunnie… I think… I think we may have just gotten…”

“We got caught in the crossfire of someone else’s prank!” What  _ shit  _ luck, jesus christ. Baekhyun shakes his head. “It was prob, like, Kyungsoo who made this to sabotage somebody. But  _ who?”  _ And why had he still left it up? Well, maybe he expected everyone had already prepared their presents… this is so unfair! 

“I– I don’t know– but  _ what do we do?” _ Luhan starts pacing in a circle. “We– we don’t have our presents anymore. And it’s not like we can find them again. And it’s gonna take forever to think of new things. Baekhyun– they’re gonna hate us. They’re gonna think we’re terrible people. I’m… I’m not. I swear! I just really didn’t know what to get, I wanted to get everyone the  _ best _ gifts, I just wanted to make everyone happy, I’ve made so many lists of ideas but I just  _ couldn’t _ pick and look where  _ that  _ got me! Doing some  _ stupid _ plan by some  _ stupid  _ person that I knew wasn’t gonna work from the start. I– I should just suffer the consequences… maybe I’ll go hide, god, I’ve ruined Christmas…”

“Lu.” Baekhyun says sternly, grabbing the guy by the shoulders. He can’t lose it now. “Lu. Get yourself together. They’re  _ not  _ gonna hate us. You’re  _ not _ a terrible person. You’re amazing as fuck, man. And this  _ isn’t _ a stupid plan. And I’m  _ not _ a stupid person. We literally  _ couldn’t _ have seen this coming, kay?” His brows lift upwards in question.

“I… okay…” It’s at times like this Luhan doesn’t really feel like his Hyung. Him and Dae both, they never really fit into a Hyung or dongsaeng place. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. Thanks Baek. But just…  _ what _ do we do now?”

“Destroy them. Destroy their presents. All of them.”

_ “…What?” _ __

“If we can’t give presents, no one can.” The idea comes as Baekhyun speaks, thoughts becoming immediate speech. “Think about it, Lu, if  _ somehow _ all the gifts happened to be destroyed, then there’d be no consequence for not giving gifts, cause they would all think ours were destroyed as well. We can say the surprise was supposed to be, like, artificial snow or whatever, but something happened and then it destroyed all the gifts. Maybe we’d be yelled at, but nowhere near what we would have otherwise, cause it wouldn’t truly be  _ our _ fault.”

Luhan’s wide eyes show uncertainty. “Baekhyun, I don’t…–“

“And, plus!” Baekhyun  _ knows  _ his plan is foolproof, but Luhan just has gotta listen. “Plus! This will make it so we can all enjoy our Christmas  _ without  _ being salty cause someone got someone something someone else wanted, or someone feels their presents aren’t good enough, like you had, and we can all just enjoy each other’s presence as the presents.” Which is total BS, but if Baekhyun plays to the friendship love forever route he’ll usually win. 

Like such:

“It’s… it’s perfect.” Luhan looks up. “Baekhyunnie, once again– you’re a genius!”

“I know.” Baekhyun grins at the amazed look on Luhan’s face.  _ “The B-B-H who saved Christmas, _ they’ll call me!”

“No, cause you’re actually right in that, too…” Luhan’s staring at him in awe. “Like, if you think about it, really, Christmas always comes with a touch of disappointment, or jealousy, but maybe if everyone just took the time to truly appreciate–“

“Blah blah blah,” Baekhyun interrupts. “Sentiment sentiment. Yeah. Whatever.” It’s kind of annoying when Luhan goes into these profound tangents. Like, does he not talk to himself enough? “Let’s just get to the plan. So the plan is we get a bag somewhere here, haul the presents to this room, burn them to an ash, and then discard the ash, and then go to Zitao crying cause we had tried to use a snowblower in the rec room but it ended up setting things on fire– oh, and for that, we should make a bit of a mess to make it look for real, too, and then wake everyone up and tell them and  _ boom,  _ it’s okay Luhan and Baekhyun we forgive you and wow, you’re right, having each other is really the best Christmas gift, and then happily ever after! Kay?”

After a moment of process Luhan nods slowly, the movement speeding up as he speaks, “Yeah. Yeah. That works. Okay. Find a bag and let’s get this over with.”

“Who’s the fatty now?” Taunts Baekhyun as they’re halfway through the sprint from room three oh nine six to the rec room and Luhan’s wheezing. Of course, he’s the one carrying the bag, but it’s literally not even a pound. Luhan’s too, like, suffocating, to tell him to shut up and instead resorts to a glare which looks really funny battling against the other expression of suffering and Baekhyun laughs and then it kind of turns to Luhan  _ chasing  _ him the rest of the way, but whatever, it gets them there faster. 

“Okay!” Baekhyun wastes no time in ripping the large bag from Luhan’s grip and throwing it to the ground in front of the grand Christmas tree. The bag must be something for artillery, cause it’s huge and long and made out of that rough material you see on duffle bags. Luhan finally flops down next to him as Baekhyun’s already grabbed the first three presents, prettily wrapped small presents signed  _ From Yifan _ , and shoved them into the corners of the bag.

“There’s so much. This is gonna take  _ forever.”  _ Luhan groans as he picks up and examines a medium one wrapped in a flannel-like design. There are three types of wrapping: one red (BB2528) with golden (F8B229) snowflakes, another white (somewhere around FFFFFF) with small silver (DCDCDC) and red snowmen and reindeer sleighs all over, and the third green (165B33) with red and gold and silver lines making that plaid pattern. The colors, minus the tiny little errors, are nearly perfect and match the tree and the garlands and ornaments (which are five different types and candy canes and then two reindeer headbands for some reason) and lights on and surrounding it. It’s so pretty. Shame it’s all gotta be ruined. 

“If you keep going that damn slow, it will.” Baekhyun retorts, though he’s guilty of reading the tags as well. A large extravagantly ribboned box from  _ Soo  _ to  _ Nini <3,  _ a long thin box from  _ Babe  _ to  _ Babe,  _ a medium sized one from  _ Baby Jongjong  _ to  _ Hyung Jongjong,  _ a small jewelry-sized one from  _ Junmyeon  _ to  _ Yifannie :D <3,  _ all the names are so personalized, cute, they must have spent so much time on them… 

_ From: Nini, To: Baekhyun(g)!!  _

_ From: Sexier Beast, To: Sexy Beast  _

_ From: <3xoomin<3, To: <3baek<3 _

_ From: Junmyeon :), To: The Beloved Baekhyun _

_ From: Yifan, To: Baekhyunnie _

(And, of course, the two _ From: RF / CF To: Agent Hyunee) _ __

_ From: Channie, To: Baekkie _

_ From: KS., To: BBH. _

And Baekhyun didn’t even spare them a single thought. 

_ Whatever, they’re gonna be all gone anyway.  _ Baekhyun tells himself as he resists the urge to see what they had gotten him. It’ll just make him feel worse. Besides, shouldn’t he be listening to his own sentiment? The real gift is everyone here. Not these stupid presents. Fuck these stupid presents. 

“You go behind the tree.” Luhan breaks him from the thoughts, “I’ll get the rest of the small ones here, you start getting the ones out back.”

“But I thought I was fat,” Baekhyun pouts as he looks over to Luhan from the Christmas tree. They have gotten mostly everything in their reach.

“I was kidding.” Luhan grunts. 

“Oh, I couldn’t tell. Could you at least say you’re sorry, Hyung?”

“Just  _ go.”  _ A growl.

“Alright, alright…” Baekhyun stands up on slightly sore legs (cause maybe he shouldn’t have squatted like that for so long but still fuck you Minseok) to squeeze himself between the section of the wall that dents inwards during the holidays for the tree, putting his hands up in attempts to get the branches away from his face. Of course, the tree is fake, but it still smells strongly of pine and gives off sticky stuff. Hah. Sticky stuff. Okay so anyway, the biggest of the presents are out back, cause, well, they’re probably the special-est ones. This is where Baekhyun finds _another_ one from Dae to him, and then a bunch of them are to Jongin for some reason, and then there is Jongin standing there watching him, and then a bunch of short bulky ones are to Minseok, and–

Wait.

_ And then there is Jongin standing there watching him? _

Baekhyun looks up again, vision trailing above the boxes to a pair of pajama clad legs, waist showing just a little because that penguin-decorated shirt is far too small to be his, large lips that usually smile now frowning, bright eyes that usually twinkle now dark, and dark hair messy from sleep. 

There is Jongin standing there watching him. 

“Hyung–“

_ “AHH!” _ The jumpscare  _ then  _ comes and Baekhyun screeches as he lurches back. This doesn’t go well, cause he trips on a present and then he’s stumbling back out from behind the Christmas tree until he lands  _ directly  _ on one of the boxes in the bag. Thank  _ god  _ the flat part.

“Baek?!” Luhan’s face hovers over his as he groans in pain, because even if he just avoided cardboard penetration (yes, it's a thing, he's seen it) it still fucking  _ hurts. _ “Baekhyun, what happened? What’s–“

_ “BUSTED!” _ The ear-splitting screech comes with the door of the closet in the corner slamming open a new hole in the wall. Just as Baekhyun jumps up to see Dae pointing an accusatory finger at him, Minseok and Chanyeol emerging behind him, the  _ woosh  _ of the other door sounds and in comes Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, Yifan, and then Zitao a couple steps behind them all.

And  _ oh my god!  _

_What?!_ Baekhyun panics as he tries to look everywhere at once but he’s surrounded, Jongin coming out from behind the tree and MinDae and Channie at the closet and the rest at the door, at the door, _Zitao?!_ He thought he had stopped time! Did he _give them away?!_ As if they're awaiting an attack from a bunch of hostile space creatures, Luhan stands back to back with him, also seeming to try to look at everyone at the same time. His face is horrified as well. What happened what happened _what happened?!_

“Now just  _ what  _ do you two think you're doing?” Minseok is the first one to speak, approaching the terrified pair. He easily takes Luhan’s current possession, Luhan's hands remain frozen in midair as if he's just a statue, reading, “From  _ Xoomin  _ to  _ Yeol.  _ From me to Chanyeol. Luhan, this doesn’t seem like it’s  _ any _ of your business…”

“And what’s this  _ bag _ , hmm?” Dae joins in, lifting the edge of their carrier, their savior, so some of the presents spill out. But he keeps doing it so they eventually  _ all  _ spill out. All of their progress.

Baekhyun’s heart beats so loud he’s afraid it’ll burst out of his chest. Somewhere in his mind he knows he’s being, like, busted, but he can’t do anything but, “Wha–what– what… what  _ happened? _ You– you’re all…” Is this just a crazy dream? And he’ll be woken up in about an hour by a cold hand at his neck? Cause when does Baekhyun get  _ caught!  _ And, an even crazier prospect, caught  _ with  _ the next cleverest member of EXO?!

“We knew the whole time, Baekhyunnie.” The way Chanyeol says the nickname isn’t like he normally does, with a cute tone of voice and a cute smile. This time, it's disapproving; almost reprimanding. 

And then Kyungsoo continues in what  _ is  _ reprimanding. “You guys are seriously something else. I suppose procrastinating getting gifts until Christmas eve is somewhat normal, though it’s still a shitty thing to do, but then all of  _ this?  _ Instead of, I don’t know,  _ owning up  _ to your irresponsibility and being bad friends and  _ apologizing?” _

“You… you…” Luhan sputters. Baekhyun feels heat from the proximity of their hands, but he refuses the urge to grab them. That'll just make things worse. And that's gay. (He’s bi, remember?)

_ “Zitao.”  _ Luhan’s aghast tone turns into a pissed one as he glares at the entrance. From behind Yifan’s shoulder slides out a rather expressionless Zitao, whose brows raise innocently at the beckon. Luhan then goes off in Mandarin, which is already weird in itself, but it’s also weird how Zitao doesn’t pause with that blank face to translate but just starts spitting out the language right back at him, eyes narrowing dangerously as he takes a couple steps forward. Yifan, however, grabs him by the collar and pulls him back gently. Zitao whips around to say something to Yifan, which sounds almost like he’s mad at him too, but then Yifan replies in Korean so Baekhyun gets the context a bit more.

“You were never trying to help them in the first place, so you shouldn’t be surprised they’re mad.” Yifan then looks up, well, down, but up from Zitao, to Baekhyun and Luhan. When they make eye contact Baekhyun feels a shiver down his spine, cause Yifan looks just a bit more annoyed than usual. 

“If you haven’t gotten it by now, you’ve been deceived. We’ve known for weeks you guys haven’t gotten presents.” 

They… they  _ have?! _

Baekhyun’s mouth falls open as he looks around the room, each and every one of their gazes on him. So not only do these people hate him for no presents, but they  _ have  _ hated him for no presents! It’s– that's so unfair! 

“Why do you look surprised?” Dae snorts. No.  _ Jongdae  _ snorts. He’s not his BFF anymore. He kept this from him the whole time. “You guys have been more than obvious every time we’ve mentioned it, and you can literally just  _ look _ under the tree and see that none of them are signed from either of you.”

“You guys really  _ are  _ idiots, god.” Kyungsoo goes on without a hint of mercy in his voice. But Baekhyun knows he’s not actually pissed or anything, he just enjoys getting to talk down to Baekhyun without repercussions. “I did you the mercy,” No he didn’t, Baekhyun doesn't know what he's gonna say but  _ no he didn't _ , “of making our set-up  _ so  _ obvious. You guys saw the notes, no? And Jongin and Chanyeol practically gave it away. Yet, despite this, you  _ still  _ went on with this idiot plan. And then, when your gifts were burned for a  _ reason,  _ for  _ such an obvious reason,  _ you just  _ doubled  _ the idiocy in your idiot plan! It’s amazing, really!"

His face reddens further as everything replays in his head and holy shit, Kyungsoo’s  _ right.  _ Jongin saying the line like it was obviously rehearsed, telling him a specific place to find the specific gift, Yifan knowing the question before it asked, Junmyeon’s more-than-normal nervousness, the notes… the notes that literally  _ said  _ he wouldn’t get away with this… he didn’t trust those notes yet trusted the one that told him to use that machine to wrap their presents… oh god, he’s such an  _ idiot.  _ Everyone’s still laughing at Kyungsoo’s words while Baekhyun gets hotter and hotter, sweat beading at his forehead and soaking under his arms. This isn’t usually like him, he swears. It’s the holiday stress, okay? 

“This… you  _ set  _ us up?” Luhan says, but he sounds more hurt than angry. Baekhyun, on the other hand, feels rage boil deep in his stomach. They set them up.  _ Him  _ up. They all took part in this plan to embarrass  _ him. _

“Yep!” Beams Minseok in that – annoying – cheery voice he likes to do. “Thought it’d teach you guys a lesson far better than letting you get away with this would.” 

“And by the way,”  _ Jong _ dae joins Minseok with an arm around his shoulder, scanning the both of them up and down. Baekhyun’s glad his shirt is black. He’d have bad pit stains by now. “Which one of you came up with this?”

_ “IT WAS HIM!”  _ Comes at the same time as  _ “IT WAS HIM!”,  _ both parties breaking from each other’s backs to face off in opposition, Baekhyun pointing at Luhan and Luhan pointing at Baekhyun. It elicits some laughter, but neither of them think it’s funny at all.

“Wha–  _ NO!”  _ Luhan jabs his finger at Baekhyun once again. He goes on before Baekhyun can conceive anything to argue instead of  _ shut up _ , voice worryingly emotional. “It was Baekhyun! He came up with this!  _ He  _ came to me and came up with the plan and then the other plan! It was all  _ him!  _ He– he– he  _ tricked  _ me!” 

Baekhyun’s jaw drops, he did  _ not  _ just say that.

“Bitch, NO! That’s  _ not _ –“

“And– and–  _ I’m so sorry!” _ Luhan suddenly bursts into tears.  _ Tears!  _ His fucking little nine-year-old girl face scrunches as he sniffles. “I– I shouldn’t have– but– but–“ He lowers his hand to wipe at his eyes. “I didn’t know what to do… I… I wanted to get you all the perfect present… I… I made so many lists… of ideas… and– but– but I just couldn’t pick, so– so I held it off…”

He sniffs again as he looks up, looking at everyone  _ but  _ Baekhyun. “I’m– I’m so sorry, guys… I shouldn’t have gone alone with his plan, I should’ve just gotten you guys stuff, even if it wasn’t– wasn’t perfect… I– you– you can take back all the stuff you got me, I don’t deserve it…” His crying face goes back down into his hands, rivulets soon running down his wrists. 

“Awe, Lu…” Junmyeon comes forward to slide an arm around his shoulders. Luhan immediately sinks into him.

And the fucking  _ audacity! _ __

“He’s faking!” Baekhyun shouts, pointing at Luhan. The devil. The fucking little angel pretending nine-year-old girl looking scrawny ass dirty fucking  _ liar!  _ “Don’t you see he’s obviously  _ faking!  _ He went along with the plan just as much as I did! And  _ lists?! _ He didn’t do no lists! He just was  _ too  _ fucking lazy and now is tryna play the victim! I– and I  _ tricked him?! Hah!”  _ Baekhyun barks out a laugh though he’s really on the verge of hitting someone. It takes everything to hold violence inside. “He literally called me a genius! And we came up with the plan  _ together!  _ And– and he’s older! He should be a responsible Hyung! He’s  _ just  _ as guilty! If not more!”

“Then why is  _ he  _ crying in apologies while you’re still trying to shift the blame?” Kyungsoo joins Junmyeon at Luhan’s other side, placing a hand on the blonde’s shoulder. 

“You– you’re  _ falling  _ for that?!” Baekhyun scoffs,  _ “You’re  _ the idiot, Kyungsoo. Junmyeon. He’s obviously faking it to get your pity. He wouldn’t cry over something so  _ stupid _ . But it’s  _ working!” _

“I–I–I–“ Luhan tries to speak, lifting his head up and wiping his arm across his nose.

“Shut up!” Baekhyun can’t  _ believe  _ this guy. He thought they were tight! He thought Luhan was above being a little bitch and betraying him when things went south. Jesus christ, he’s gonna kill him. He really is. Cause he looks  _ so  _ fucking sad that literally Chanyeol’s now got tears in his eyes and oh my  _ god  _ Baekhyun’s gonna  _ explode! _ “Literally  _ shut up!  _ No one wants to hear your lies, no one–“

“Let him speak, asshat.” Kyungsoo interrupts. Baekhyun almost jumps at him right then right there, but he knows that wouldn’t end well. He’s stopped physically fighting Kyungsoo ever since his powers got good enough to send him flying across the room with a single hand. Rage buzzes throughout his body at the indignance of it all.

“He’s– he’s right– I did– I did do the plan with him– I’m– I’m just as guilty.” Luhan cries. Fucking crybaby. Fucking fucker. Fuck him. “I should– should’ve been the bigger person, I’m so sorry… but– but I didn’t plan it. I just went along. He– he said we would be fine, I believed him… and– you can see the lists I made if you want, they’re– they’re in the dorm...”

“I seed them.” Zitao then shakes his head. “I mean I saw them. He don't lie.”

“And I’m so sorry,” Luhan breaks down back into Junmyeon’s shoulder, who holds him close and rubs his head and you know what? Fuck Junmyeon too. Junmyeon  _ lied _ to him. Baekhyun didn’t think that would ever happen. “Do whatever you want with my gifts– I’m not gonna take them– I’ll get you guys all something as soon as I can– and sorry– sorry– sorry for…  _ ruining  _ Christmas…”

This guy. This fucking guy. 

Luhan sobs as Junmyeon The Liar comforts him, “No, Lu, you didn’t  _ ruin  _ Christmas, don’t worry…”

“If anything,  _ Baekhyun  _ ruined Christmas.” Chanyeol says and Baekhyun whips his head from the crying boy. He glares as hard as he can but for the first time Chanyeol doesn’t shy away. 

“Yeah. Baek,” Minseok steps right in front of his glare, hands on his hips like an angry mom, “now it’s  _ your  _ turn to explain. Why didn’t  _ you  _ get anything? Why did  _ you  _ come up with that plan?”

“Cause– cause– cause none y’all deserve gifts!” The accumulated fury escapes from his lips and there’s no turning back now, “You guys are fucking idiots! You’re believing this fucking crybaby _ just  _ cause you don’t wanna believe me! Cause I’m right, it’s Lu’s fault, but  _ no, _ you just  _ can’t  _ have that! Byun Baekhyun just can’t be right! Like, it’s a recurring thing, y’all not wanting to side with me, and I get it, there’s some jealousy, but holy  _ fuck  _ do y’all have it out for me! You’re jealous so Baekhyun  _ can’t _ be innocent, cause there’s  _ gotta _ be some evil reason he ain’t got no presents– well– well, there is! I just  _ didn’t  _ care!”

He kicks at one of the presents, sending it over to Yifan and Zitao who just stare at it before lifting their wide eyes back to him. “I just didn’t care cause I’ve got  _ better  _ things to do than worry myself sick getting y’all shit. No one even said I had to get gifts. And Christmas is literally  _ pointless _ anyway. So shut y’all sensitive asses up and if you’ll excuse me,  _ I’m  _ gonna go–“ Except he’s not gonna go, because something stops him, and then that  _ something  _ turns into a sudden pain down low as he hears the fabric of his underwear tear.

The whole room bursts out in laughter as Baekhyun lets out a cry, and he tries to turn around but then he’s lifted off the ground by said underwear, and every movement he makes just causes  _ more  _ pain and fuck, fucking–

“This is for last week, Hyung.” Jongin mutters as he drops him. Baekhyun’s knees go weak and he falls to the ground, and  _ what the hell?! _ It was literally  _ Luhan  _ who did that.  _ Luhan _ who did it and blamed it on him!

“Baekhyunnie…” There’s then Dae–  _ Jong _ dae’s face hovering over him as he grits his teeth in pain, trying to undo the wedgie but he suddenly feels so weak, his face  _ burns  _ and his heart races and everything’s just a bit blurry for a couple moments.

“You’re… so you’re not sorry? You’re not gonna get us presents now, at least?”  _ Jong _ dae’s head tilts to the side as his lips curl into a frown. 

“No.” Baekhyun scoffs, shoving the hem of his briefs back into his flannels and kicking out at  _ Jong _ dae so he backs away. He’s gonna kill Jongin. And Luhan. He’s gonna kill everyone. It’ll just be him and the robots after today. “Y’all don’t deserve nothin’. I ain’t getting you  _ shit.“ _

“Oh,”  _ Jong _ dae then grins, as if he had been expecting that response. “Oh, but you are.”

_ “What?” _ Baekhyun’s eyes narrow. The voice was concerningly evil, the one he uses when he’s got a diabolical plan (ex. tricking Jongin into revealing where he and Kyungsoo keep their cheeto stash). 

“We were originally–“  _ Jong _ dae’s interrupted by a gasp when Baekhyun’s yanked to his feet by Minseok, who then wraps his arms around his chest smugly. Baekhyun’s legs still tingle and his crotch  _ aches _ , so he can’t even try to escape. “We were originally going to do this to both you and Luhan-hyung, but it seems Luhan-hyung is already sorry for what he did.”

_ “What?”  _ The same confusion comes in his voice, but now with nervousness. He didn’t think his heart could beat any faster.  _ Jong _ dae still used that malicious voice. “Do  _ what?” _

“This!” Minseok chirps right before the embrace suddenly becomes suffocating. He tries to turn around to get out but then Jongin comes to (not) help and grabs his arms and then  _ Kyungsoo  _ comes to (not) help and uses his powers cause he’s a pussy to hold still his kicking legs and then he’s trapped. Baekhyun doesn’t really know what’s happening as he’s more focused on yelling and thrashing, but next thing he knows there’s the scratch of duct tape and then his hands are bounded, and then someone’s taking branches off the artificial Christmas tree and then something of an idea of what they’re doing comes and he fights even harder to escape, he kicks Jongin to the ground (though he’s gonna do  _ so  _ much more to him later!), but then fucking  _ Yifan  _ even comes to help and Baekhyun’s shoved towards the tree, and then sounds more and more rips of duct tape and less and less he can move until Baekhyun finally realizes it:

EXO just duct-taped him to the Christmas tree. 

He’s elevated a foot or so off the ground and his wrists are taped together, so all he can do is kick his legs but everyone exits the two foot radius he can reach. Nor does kicking even  _ budge  _ the tree, either, the trunk is about as thick as he is. No one seems to be rushing to stop this. In fact, Minseok with the duct tape comes and wraps several more layers around him, making escape even more hopeless.

“Yah,” Baekhyun feels heat radiating from everywhere, drops of sweat running down the sides of his face. He looks up at the whole room, who’re done laughing though there’s still mirth on every single expression, even fucking  _ Junmyeon,  _ but it’s too embarrassing so he brings his eyes back down. He tries to keep his voice demanding, “Get me down. Now.”

“Nuh-uh.” Dae–  _ Jong _ dae– Kim Jongdae– the boy his age with black hair, stands in front of the tree, smiling at the sight of him like he was never his best friend in the first place. “This is what you get for lying to us and trying to destroy all our presents. And all that shit you just said a moment ago. So now you’re gonna shut up and be a pretty Christmas ornament while we open our presents. You know, the ones we got for each other. This’ll count as your present for us, since you’re still gonna take what we got for you. Or, if you don’t wanna have this be a present,  _ our _ revenge.”

_ “NO!”  _ He can’t believe it’s Dae out of all people saying this.  _ Dae.  _ Even when he does (as perceived by others cause they’re stupid) bad things his BFF is  _ always  _ on his side! “You– you can’t do this, it’s literally– harassment! This is  _ harassment! _ The robots said you can’t harassment– harass!”

“The robots aren’t here.” Out of everyone  _ Kyungsoo  _ says. ‘Out of everyone’ cause Kyungsoo hangs out with RF and CF  _ all the time.  _ (But don’t joke about Kyungsoo getting hard for them cause he’ll give you a black eye). “And we aren’t even hurting you. You’re just on a tree.” 

“Yifan!” Baekhyun ignores the interruption, so desperate as to try the leader who literally  _ never  _ fucking acts like it. “You do something! You’re the leader– this isn’t allowed!  _ Do  _ something!” Yet, to his anticipation, Yifan just fucking  _ stands  _ there like the dumb fucking oaf he is and even fucking  _ smirks,  _ like he thinks it’s funny! “Yah, don’t you–” 

“God,” Kyungsoo interrupts. “Would you just  _ shut up?!” _

_ “No! _ I will  _ not  _ shut–“

The sound of more duct tape off the roll. 

“Never mind. I’ll shut up. Don’t–  _ don’t _ do that.” Minseok smiles at him saccharinely as he sticks the piece back onto the roll, patting his head and dodging the kick Baekhyun attempts and then that same piece is back off the roll to tie his ankles together. This time Minseok  _ kisses  _ his head and Baekhyun tries to shove his bound wrists out at him but he dodges and then tickles him under the chin and skips away.

And that’s how Byun Baekhyun’s second Christmas with EXO ends. Nobody gets justice for him and they all do just what  _ Jong _ dae said, completely disregarding Baekhyun apart from glances and subsequent laughter as they all sit down in a group and open their presents, the ones they got each other. Junmyeon and Luhan take the couch, where the latter continues to sniff and wipe his tears with the blanket Junmyeon gets for him. Yifan and Kyungsoo both go for the same corner, which ends up in Kyungsoo shoving him so he flies across the room but then Yifan  _ actually  _ flies to go and hover directly over Kyungsoo until he gets sick of it and relocates to Jongin’s side at the base of the couch. Lined up in front of the door is Minseok,  _ Jong _ dae, and Chanyeol, all sitting criss-cross and the couple holding hands. Zitao gets all excited to hand out the gifts but Baekhyun can’t think it’s cute because fuck Zitao and fuck  _ everyone.  _ He hangs there in a constant state of shame, trying to wiggle his way out and breathe despite the heat and sweat  _ everywhere.  _ It’s the most humiliating thing  _ ever.  _

_ Especially  _ so when, not even two minutes through it, Kyungsoo steps up to him and procures something on the tree and then suddenly Baekhyun’s got reindeer antlers. He tries to spit in his face but it lands on his shirt instead, to which  _ fuck he’s gonna kill me fuck  _ but actually Kyungsoo just reciprocates it by spitting back on  _ his _ shirt. This interaction brings attention to Baekhyun, who is then decorated further. Chanyeol finds some kind of red nose (“Hyung, it’s about as red as your face.”). Jongin wraps garland around his limbs (“Wow… so pretty~”). Minseok takes some of the – other – ornaments and hangs them from the collar of his shirt and the hem of his pants, (“If you move, you’ll jingle.”). And  _ Jong _ dae slides two of the giant stockings over his feet (“Now your feet will be warm.”). It’s all topped off with a little belled collar around his neck and Baekhyun has never wanted to die so much. Every time he cusses them out they just laugh.

Baekhyun’s firm resolve of  _ I’m so pissed I’m going to fucking kill every single one of them  _ weakens as they all go on and open each other’s presents and enjoy each other’s company and have a great Christmas despite how much Baekhyun wants it to be ruined. Although he’s definitely the most stand-out thing on the tree, he just feels like he’s disappearing as more and more wrapping paper fills the floor and there are more and more smiles and less and less attention is on the pretty ornament swearing under his breath. 

Jongin actually  _ does _ still receive a bear onesie, and, to everyone’s annoyance, he strips right then and there to change into it, though Chanyeol who was just yelling at him for being naked doesn’t mind cuddling him once he’s in the outfit. Junmyeon’s presents are mostly small, sentimental little things like jewels or rings or ugly art figures. Minseok gets a green liquid from Kyungsoo that’s supposed to let him stay awake for a week straight. Zitao gets a piece of space rock (“No, it’s not just space rock. If you put it in the right place something will happen. But I’m not telling you where or what. You have to find out yourself.”). Yifan and Kyungsoo get a lot of books. Luhan gets books but of a different genre (romances and comics as opposed to astronomy and robot stuff). Every present from Junmyeon includes a several-page handwritten letter. CF and RF’s gifts, like last year, aren’t stuff just scrapped from whatever they could find in the exterior of the ship and Exoplanet: Kyungsoo gets a whole new drawing tablet and Minseok a kindle thing, Yifan a piece of paper Baekhyun knows is an update, cause his eyes glaze over it, face darkening as he tucks it into his pocket. Dae–  _ Jong _ dae gets a bunch of makeup supplies cause he’s good at that and comics which he likes cause he never got to enjoy them as a child and then just a singular two-pound dumbbell from his boyfriend, but it must have some sort of meaning because  _ Jong _ dae turns bright red and tackles him. A similar exchange happens with Kyungsoo who gets something from Yifan that prompts him to shove it back in the box, get up, and attempt to choke him. Though he’s smiling while at it. Just like Dae and Minseok. Just like everyone else. 

“Hey, Baekhyunnie,” Dae–  _ Jongdae, god dammit,  _ says as Kyungsoo’s jumping up and down trying to snag the shirt of Yifan who has floated himself to the ceiling. Baekhyun looks up to see him holding a medium sized box in the green plaid wrapping, a perfectly tied yellow bow crossing it. “This one’s for you.” 

He knows. He knows exactly what each one of his presents look like. He had spent so much time staring at them that he knows their exact designs and designators. This one’s from Kyungsoo.

“Kay?” Baekhyun doesn’t really know what he’s getting at, though. Is he gonna continue to tease him? 

“Want me to open it for you? I can bring it over there.”

“…” So they’re not gonna let him go even for his own presents. “Fuck you. Throw it away for all I care.”

Of course, his spiteful tone shifts the mood uncomfortably, telling by the way  _ Jong _ dae’s face falters and others stare, but he doesn’t care. He wishes he could ruin it more. 

“Awe, Baek,”  _ Jong _ dae’s voice goes gentle and it makes Baekhyun’s shit mood even worse, cause now he kind of wants to start crying and  _ no  _ he’s  _ not  _ gonna do that! Determination! Don’t give in! That’s what he wants!

“Don’t be sour,” He says as he undoes the ribbon  _ right  _ in front of him. “Remember,  _ you _ warranted this– oh, hey,  _ cookies!” _

Baekhyun’s brows furrow as his head snaps up to Kyungsoo, who’s stopped jumping for Yifan and just stares at him. That happens for a couple seconds before Kyungsoo’s lips tug upward at the corners, and he nods once before turning to jump up at Yifan again. Baekhyun’s heart flutters.

“Try one.” There’s then a cookie at his lips and Baekhyun acquiesces, pretending he’s not stoked as fuck because he hasn’t had Kyungsoo’s baking in like  _ months  _ and it’s just as amazing as he remembers it. He looks in the box and there’s like, shit,  _ fifty? _

“You can have the rest later~”  _ Jong _ dae, to his surprise, doesn’t take even one as he shuts the box, placing it near his suspended feet. Baekhyun immediately reverts to his sour mood, refusing to show weakness. 

But it just gets harder. They continue on, and each time a present of Baekhyun is reached,  _ Jong _ dae asks permission to open it. Baekhyun grunts something spiteful and then  _ Jong _ dae comes over to open it for him: Yifan made him a list of every single room with a lock on the ship, saying who, if they even are, is in there at what times, Junmyeon gets him this  _ really  _ nice smelling cologne and pretty contact lenses and one of those several-page handwritten letters Baekhyun knows he’s gonna forget to read later, Chanyeol – somehow – finds him a copy of the full story of one of the, like,  _ stories,  _ (comics… mangas… yaoi… okay fine it’s hentai) he has on that USB, Jongin gets him a game called  _ Exokart  _ but tells him he’s going to have to share, Zitao gets him a big plaque that, to Baekhyun’s astonishment,  _ does  _ in fact hold pretty much every single color, which will be helpful as  _ fuck  _ as opposed to the several color cards he has to bring back and forth from the power training room and his dorm (cause the one time he left some there and Chanyeol accidentally burned them all), and Minseok and  _ Jong _ dae…

“You should see this one for yourself.” A flush crosses Minseok’s face as he takes the gift from his boyfriend, standing up and angling whatever is inside the tiny box so nobody can see it but Baekhyun.

It’s a note. Not like the ones from earlier though. In Dae’s handwriting there’s:

_ this is a coupon for ONE super cool fun time. ok? ONE. and we can kick u out any moment. _

And in Minseok’s, along with a bunch of ‘ONLY 1’s decorating the paper like confetti:

_ and no barking. or growling. or body shaming. or your mom jokes. or bragging please its so annoying. and for the love of god use ur dumbo ears and LISTEN if i say something.  _

_ …and u literally wonder y we dont want u involved…  _ :/

Baekhyun gasps slowly as a smile grows on his face, but then he’s suffocating because Minseok clamps a hand over his mouth but because he’s Minseok he does it too hard and it’s basically a slap in the face. Minseok apologizes frantically as Baekhyun’s reduced back to pissy and he completely forgets about the coupon. 

RF gets him another special USB he asked for and CF the same, except by the note of “If addictive tendencies are observed, you will lose this privilege.”  _ Jong _ dae reads aloud – to everyone’s delight cause it’s just  _ so  _ fucking funny he’s got a problem (no he doesn’t shut up) – Baekhyun gets the feeling CF got him the bare minimum. And then Luhan, of course, gets him nothing but those evil little stares he keeps giving him. 

Despite all the gifts, Baekhyun only becomes more conflicted, feelings of happiness and gratitude and love clashing against loneliness and indignance and hatred. It’s only when he sees everything given to him, the time his members had spent thinking of him, that Baekhyun actually starts to, like, feel bad. It’s not even like it was the most effort in the universe, either, but they still had put a little bit of thought into him cause they love him. But Baekhyun (hates right now but also) loves them too, right? So why didn’t he give even the bare minimum? 

What Luhan said. He’s a horrible person. He’s a horrible person and he’s getting punished for it. That’s so embarrassing. He distracts himself from the humiliating thought with paying attention to everyone’s shenanigans. 

The whole of the gifts takes around an hour or two, but Baekhyun ends up being there on the tree, like,  _ all  _ day. This is how it happens: Jongin right-out disappears, which usually signals something is over, and then Yifan slips out with the bag Baekhyun and Luhan had brought full of his presents, and then Minseok goes on like he had the same idea but then realizes Yifan’s already out of the room with the bag and curses him, and Junmyeon helps everyone gather their gifts in one box or the other. Baekhyun’s mumbling and then speaking and then shouting this whole time, but no one pays him any mind but Junmyeon, who looks really scared cause he probably feels bad (“I  _ know  _ you feeling bad, Myeon, as you should, now let me go!”) but doesn’t wanna go against everyone else cause he’s an asslicker and Luhan, who winks at Baekhyun on the way out with his arm around Junmyeon ushering him through the exit as well. 

And then Kyungsoo who stops at the door to stare at him.

“Kyungsoo. Soo. Dude. Bro. Man.  _ Please.”  _ Baekhyun begs what’s at best a brick wall. “Don’t leave me here. I–“

Kyungsoo suddenly  _ bursts  _ out in laughter. Baekhyun’s jaw drops in indignance. What the hell?! Why is he–

“Sorry, sorry.” Kyungsoo stands back up from where he had doubled over, bringing a hand to the bridge of his nose. “I just can’t take you seriously looking like that.”

_ “Fuck you.” _ __

“Yeah, yeah,” Kyungsoo shakes the mirth from his expression, “anyway, you were saying?”

“I–“ Baekhyun swallows his indignance. Yelling at Kyungsoo’s not gonna convince him. “I was saying that I’ve  _ got things to do _ . So let me down. Please.”

“What things? It’s Christmas.” Kyungsoo’s face remains straight, but Baekhyun knows he’s on the verge of laughter again. 

“I…” Why does he have to actually  _ ask?  _ “Just  _ stuff.  _ Important things I need to do, kay? Important things. I have priorities and they’re not being taped to a tree all day.”

“Seems you don’t have your priorities very straight. I would imagine that at least  _ one  _ of the ‘important things’ you’ve needed to do is get everyone Christmas gifts.” Kyungsoo replies without mercy. “Maybe you can spend the rest of today reflecting on that priority.”

“What– Kyungsoo– Kyungsoo  _ no.”  _ Baekhyun’s heart drops as Kyungsoo turns to the door, they’re going to leave him here all day, aren’t they? “Kyungsoo, no! Don’t leave me here! Kyungsoo! Kyungsoo _ Kyungsoo Kyungsoo KYUNGSOO!” _

_ Woosh!  _

And the worst part is Baekhyun does  _ just  _ that.

Though, of course, he first tries to get out. He tries biting at the tape around his wrists for at least an hour, but there’s so many layers he’ll never get out. He next tries swinging his legs back into the tree to get a grip on the branches, but his ankles are bound together too tight for any kind of good angle. He had already tried thrashing and wiggling the hour before.

Hence, there’s not much Baekhyun can do except push off the red nose and antlers and maneuver all the ornaments off his body, but he doesn’t even try to mess with the garlands or the socks. He continues to refuse to admit defeat as he finds some way to entertain himself: talking out loud like Luhan does, Luhan should be here with him right now, it wouldn’t be as insufferable then, but also he plots Luhan’s demise, tells a story, says those five English and twenty Mandarin words he knows, sings Christmas carols, tries to scream loud enough for the noise to exit the room– but ultimately, the emotions just become too much. 

They’re all right. He deserves this. The only thought he gave presents for his members was to brush the topic away, and what would he have even gotten? He can think of the perfect gifts now, it doesn’t take long, and  _ why _ hadn’t he just done that? The least Baekhyun can do to show everyone he loves them. And yet, when he was caught for trying to avoid this, he just tried to blame Luhan and then cussed everyone out. He’s… wow, he’s such a brat. It’s all his fault and he deserves it yet he’s so entitled that he’s still upset. Upset over something that could’ve been avoided  _ even  _ in the midst of it, he could have just  _ taken  _ the notes seriously and  _ not  _ concluded they should destroy all the gifts, god, Kyungsoo's right, he’s so stupid…

This is the worst Christmas  _ ever. _

Baekhyun’s in the worst mood he’s ever been in when someone enters hours later. He feels equally strong urges to kill and cry into a shoulder.

“Hey sexy, wassup.” Dae’s fluffy hair comes into his line of vision and then he’s staring up at him, expression mirthful. A warm hand comes up to his face to pat his cheek and ruffle his hair. “How are we doing~?”

_ “Yah,” _ Baekhyun’s voice cracks and his face reddens. “I thought we were best friends.”

“Um, we are?” Dae’s head tilts. 

“Best friends don’t tape each other to trees all day…” 

“If it makes you feel better,” Dae leans in and Baekhyun realizes he’s taking him down. He unravels the garland on his limbs and starts at the duct tape behind him. “I came up with it.” 

_ Of course he did.  _ Baekhyun fucking  _ hates  _ that he feels the slightest of pride. He taught Dae well.  _ Too  _ well. “It doesn’t.” As the final strip comes off and Baekhyun’s let down, his legs immediately go weak and Dae catches him, but this time he’s so numb he can’t even stand back up. But it’s okay cause Dae holds him close and runs his fingers through his hair and then Baekhyun decides to say, “I’m sorry…”

And you know what? Fuck all that don’t give in stuff. It’s just Dae here. “I– I didn’t mean what I said, I swear… I love y’all…”

“We know you love us.” Dae’s really good at that gentle tone, that one that makes him feel like he’s protected forever. The tingling in Baekhyun’s limbs gets less and less but he still can’t stand up. “And now I know you’re sorry. Now we’re all even, okay?”

“I’ll get y'all the  _ best  _ gifts next year, I promise.” Baekhyun’s words are muffed into his best friend’s shoulder. But he’s glad, cause he kinda gets emotional, it’s been  _ so _ long since human touch, and it covers it up. “Dae– this was so–  _ so _ embarrassing…”

“That was the point, Baekhyunnie.” Dae holds him out by the shoulders to face him, grinning widely. 

Baekhyun just frowns further. “I– I can’t face anyone ever again. I can’t look anyone in the face ever again. I– I gotta go find somewhere to hide, Dae. I gotta get food and hibernate forever. Or die. I just want to die…”

“Now come on, don’t be so dramatic. You’ll be fine.” Dae brings him back into the hug, rubbing his back soothingly. “Maybe you’ll be made fun of a little, but hey, this is kind of the year’s payback for all your other shenanigans."

_ "What _ shenanigans?" Baekhyun sniffs, "I– I didn't do nothing, I’m a good boy... but y'all so mean..."

"Um... EXO's anniversary ring a bell?" Oh, when he tied everyone to their bedposts during the night before... Well, that's  _ nothing  _ compared to this! "Or dying Luhan's hair pink." And he should've  _ thanked  _ him! "Or all of Yifan’s clothes pink." Same thing here! He hated the color and so Baekhyun thought he’d give him some free exposure therapy. "Or Junmyeon's birthday present?" Oh, well,  _ that _ was a joke! "And the comments on his weight you still  _ continued _ to make?" Everyone needs motivation! "I still remember Chanyeol crying nonstop his first  _ week  _ because of you, you didn't give the guy a break." And? It's not  _ his  _ fault Chanyeol believed him when he said he was here to be an alien sex slave! "When you literally  _ blinded  _ Min?” Um, well, that one– "And with that the constant size-shaming on the guy?" Alright, maybe– "The time you tried to choke Kyungsoo in his sleep?" But– "When you lied to Junmyeon about having all these allergies for  _ months  _ so he'd make you meals? Chanyeol’s  _ ‘ear piercing’?  _ Shaving Luhan's eyebrow? Does your April fools prank ring a bell? You know,  _ faking your death?" _

...Okay. So maybe Baekhyun hasn't been the  _ goodest _ boy this year. 

"I'm sorry." He hugs tighter like if he squeezes hard enough Dae will forgive him. And look at him, tryna make excuses. He's horrible. "I'm so sorry."

"Well, I would say this to who you did it to," Because they both know Baekhyun has not lamented a single one of these incidents besides those heartless apology letters RF and CF directed him to write, "but just saying that this is the bare  _ minimum _ of payback. You don’t even have to go to the medical unit. But regardless, we'll all continue to live life. Alright?”

“No. I don’t wanna _.”  _ He’s only a little child. A little baby child.  _ Why _ would they do this to him? Like half of them are younger than him, fine, but  _ why would they do this to him? _

“Yes you do.” Dae then puts a hand on his back as he crouches down, and suddenly Baekhyun’s off his feet. Dae’s pretty face hovers over his, a gentle comfort in his eyes. “You’re gonna shower and eat and enjoy all those cookies and I’m gonna make hot chocolate and we’re gonna watch a movie till we’re asleep, okay?”

And oh yeah that sounds nice never mind, “Kay…”

The life is back in Baekhyun’s legs by the time Dae brings him to the shower, but they still shower together anyway and then they head to the kitchen for the leftovers of the Christmas dinner they missed. Kyungsoo, cleaning up the kitchen, stares at him and bursts out into random fits of laughter after long enough of it and makes sarcastic remarks, as Dae had predicted, but with enough of it Dae asks him to stop and when he doesn’t Dae electrocutes him and Kyungsoo shuts up for the rest of their meal and the time they wait for the milk to start steaming so they can put the hot chocolate packets in. Yifan and Jongin give him wry smiles on the way back to the dorms and Zitao, who’s in the dorms, immediately leaves once they come in. They go to Minseok’s corner bed and Dae rubs some product in his hair for him as he munches on the cookies, telling Dae he can have as much as he wants yet he still only takes one or two. One of the Christmas movies they’re allowed by the robots this time of year,  _ Home Alone,  _ plays on a tablet propped-up at the end of the bed as the snacks and hot chocolate are enjoyed, and never mind, this isn’t such a bad Christmas, and then when they’re finished with the drinks Dae cuddles him which is awesome and then later Minseok comes in and gives him a massage which is even awesomer but this happens first:

The EXO-M dorm door opens and in enters a freshly showered Minseok. By now, Baekhyun's hair is all dry despite Dae’s fingers carding through it. He's been doing it the whole time, propped up with some pillows against the wall with Baekhyun between his arms and legs. Dae’s the best comfort whenever he needs it. Baekhyun's envious of this extremely nurturing side of Dae, the one where Baekhyun feels an overwhelming desire to stay in that position forever, but he knows the quality came from a dark place.

"Really, Jongdae?" Is the first thing Minseok says as he approaches the bed, lifting on his toes to rummage through the compartments above.

"Yah, really  _ what?"  _ Dae takes one of his hands from Baekhyun's hair to poke the stomach when his shirt lifts to reach something. The poke soon turns into a tickle and Minseok grabs his arm with one hand to stop it while he continues to reach with the other.

"You spoil him." As Minseok lowers from his toes, his sharp eyes scan Baekhyun up and down. Baekhyun sinks deeper into his best friend. Fuck Minseok. Dae likes Baekhyun better anyway. 

" _ After _ I was sure he was sorry." Dae’s fingers find their way in his and Baekhyun nods slightly as if that will corroborate. "He's learned his lesson, don’t worry."

"I'll get you all the  _ best  _ presents next year." Baekhyun says, though it's more a mumble because he has been getting closer and closer to sleep.

"Oh, you will now?" Minseok switches his shirt for what is literally the same exact one. He does that all the damn time. He’s got some sort of germ-freak thing going on. 

"I  _ will."  _ Baekhyun glares. “They’ll all be better than any presents you could  _ ever  _ get.” __

With enough moments of intense eye contact, Minseok’s gaze softens and his lips flatten.

"Watch him forget this next week, Dae." He lies cause Baekhyun’s  _ not  _ gonna forget as he places his hands on the bed, leaning inwards which gets  _ right _ in the way of the movie. 

"What are we watching?" He still doesn’t move.

"Home alone. The one with the white kid whose big family leaves him in the house and then there's burglars." Dae’s hand leaves him to find Minseok’s hair, "You should join us, babe."

"I don't know..." Minseok turns his head, eyes lowering to Baekhyun. "I don't want to spoil him further." And Baekhyun frowns.

"Come on, it's  _ Christmas. _ It's the day for spoiling." A tug at Minseok’s ear, "It's only right after hours of public shame."

Minseok’s lips flatten further and he lets out a noise of discontent but, to Baekhyun’s surprise, he actually does join. Dae moves them so they're up against the wall and the corner (the best spot) and Minseok settles next to Dae. Baekhyun hears the sound of a kiss – but he’s too tired to call ew PDA – before Minseok’s attention is on him. "Bet you're feeling better, brat." He flicks him in the forehead. 

"I’m sorry, Min.”

“Wait.” Minseok blinks harshly,  _ “What?  _ Did you just say you’re  _ sorry?”  _

Baekhyun nods, looking down at his lap. “I– I really am. I just kept putting it off, getting gifts, and I didn’t really think about how y’all would feel… but I love you guys, I really do– I just… was being dumb. And self-centered… But I guess you’re used to that by now…”

“Yeah. Kinda am.” Minseok just flat-out states. 

“Same here.” 

“Wha– _ Dae!”  _ Baekhyun’s jaw drops because sure he expects that from Minseok but Dae? The  _ betrayal!  _ He turns around to fight him but what happens instead is Minseok grabs him and wrestles him until he’s on his stomach with his face being pushed into the blanket (which he also expects because remember Minseok’s number one while Baekhyun’s number three,  _ three,  _ so he  _ would  _ have won whatever he was just going to do to Dae). Minseok settles his full weight onto his back. 

"Just relax.” Minseok says as he lets go of his head. Baekhyun begins to do exactly the opposite, but his yell of ‘ _ THIS IS SPARTA’  _ and thrash is interrupted by an almost orgasmic sensation in his back and there's a  _ pop  _ and suddenly everything is loose.

_ "Oh, how do that," _ Baekhyun moans but it's muffled into the blanket.

"Make sex noises and I'm kicking you out. And in all seriousness, it's fine. Just don't do it again. And even if you do get into some kind of situation like that, you should just  _ tell _ someone... well, tell someone that's not Luhan... me, tell me. Or just, someone who’s going to actually help. Use that good judgement I know– I'm  _ pretty sure–”  _ Ouch, “–you have... deep down... hidden under all of those layers of ego... somewhere... probably..." 

_"I get the_ _poin_ _–"_

"–If you had told me," Minseok pushes his head down to stop the talking, then lifting his hand back away. "I would've helped you. Same with Dae. Even if we may have been mad at first, we'd still help. Because we love you. And that's what we're here for."

_ "Mmmkay... I will... sorry..." _ Baekhyun nods into the comforter. Minseok's buff hands continue at his shoulders and he refrains from making said sex noises because although it would be funny he doesn’t doubt Minseok would kick him out and this is, like, the  _ only  _ thing saving today.

“Yah, what’s this?” The massage stops as one of Baekhyun’s hands is grabbed. The bite bruises are squeezed at and he yanks it away, shoving it under his stomach. He suppresses the utter  _ rage _ that peeks out at the thought of Luhan who’s _gotten away with all this._

_ “Nothin’...”  _ Though Dae goes to quickly explain something that’s not Nothin', and he and Minseok share yet another laugh at Baekhyun. But this time Baekhyun doesn’t get all mad because Minseok quickly goes back to the massage and Dae rubs his hair again and he falls asleep in their embrace and everything is forgotten and  _ that’s  _ how Byun Baekhyun’s second Christmas with EXO ends. He loves them. He loves them so much.

But like, that’s embarrassing. Don’t tell anyone. 

Additionally, he attempts to strangle Luhan in the middle of the night which turns into an official ban of Agent Hyunee from the EXO_M dormitory unit. Luhan’s neck is sprained and he has to stay in the medical unit for a week.

And now Baekhyun is in  _ huge  _ trouble. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! <3


	46. The Power of Persuasion 1/3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing attempts to tell Baekhyun he's been living a lie.

**"THE _HELL_** is he doing?” 

Yixing’s tired eyes look over at Jongdae, who’s looking at Sehun who’s looking at Kyungsoo who’s looking at Chanyeol who’s looking at Junmyeon who’s looking at Minseok who’s looking at Jongin who’s looking at Baekhyun. Baekhyun’s smiling, which is definitely not a good sign. It’s only when Yixing sees the white ball of fluff in his arms that he realizes why everyone’s staring.

“Look what I found!” Baekhyun looks up, an adoring grin on his face. He holds out what looks like an _animal_ for a moment of exhibition, then bringing it to his chin. “It’s so cute! O-M-G! _Guys~!”_

About half of the group lets out exasperated sighs because what part of _Baekhyun Sit Down and Eat Breakfast God Dammit_ does he not understand while the other half coos and crowds Baekhyun and the animal thing. Yixing is part of the former, but he still goes over to see what it is. He is supposed to be getting Baekhyun alone to talk to him, so maybe this will be the start. After all, Kyungsoo expects him to have told Baekhyun, Minseok, and Junmyeon all by the next dinner / rest period, which gives him about twelve hours. He really doesn’t want to let him down again. He doesn’t want to imagine Kyungsoo even _more_ disappointed and frustrated with him.

After their conversation (or confrontation, both are fitting), Yixing had gotten some sleep, albeit he woke up sore from being cuddled up to Junmyeon so tightly and a bit awkwardly. The arm that was under him took ten minutes to start moving, but Junmyeon found it adorable he wanted to be so close to him. Sehun, however, found it ‘treason’ that they both left him for each other – despite being able to sleep the whole night for such – and harassed Yixing all morning for Junmyeon’s mussed hair. Same as Sehun, many others also noticed the hair, but they came to some _very_ different conclusions than ‘you messed up his hair because you’re jealous you didn’t have enough hair gel yourself’.

“He’s so cute!” Jongin squeals. Yixing rises on his toes to look over his shoulder and realize the space animal doesn’t look like a space animal at all– it looks like a _cat._ Baekhyun has found a _cat._ It only takes a couple more seconds for Yixing to realize it looks _exactly_ like Félicette. Yixing feels a bit off-put, because what if it’s the same species, or even _offspring_ , and merely waiting to grow gigantic and kill them? Yet, no one else seems bothered. Not even Baekhyun who had screamed his lungs out while running from the giant feline nor Jongin who still has a scar from when it almost _killed_ him.

“How do you know it’s not a _she?”_ Jongdae narrows his eyes at Jongin, who seems to think this over.

“She’s so cute!” 

“Actually,” Baekhyun lifts up the squirming thing, angling the privates out for everyone to inspect (poor thing). Except, that upon looking, Yixing doesn’t see _any_ genitals. Not even buried within the fur. Just a smooth surface.

He’s not the only one that sees this. “They. It’s a they.”

“We should name it!” Chanyeol beams.

“Minseok!” Jongdae shouts, either beckoning over his boyfriend (but aren’t they fighting?) or actually suggesting that they name it _Minseok._

“Name it Minseok, cause it looks like him.” The second. It’s the second.

“No it doesn’t.” Sehun glares.

“Yeah it does. Look at the eyes!” Whilst they’re arguing, Yixing steps around Jongdae to get full access to the cat. It wriggles in Baekhyun’s arms, but doesn’t seem to be dead set on escaping or anything. The eyes don’t look like Minseok’s, they’re round rather than sharp. Whatever it is, it must be very young or very old. If Baekhyun were to drop it, Yixing wouldn’t be surprised if it broke. Its limbs shake slightly and the fur is in thin strands, but it doesn’t look emaciated. Rather, frail. Like his current state of consciousness.

“Wanna pet?” Baekhyun offers, giving a kiss to the top of its head before lifting it.

“You…” And despite this current state of consciousness, Yixing can still theorize that this is some sort of offspring of the cat from his previous mission. The delicate appearance could signify that it’s very young, which would correspond to the novelty of this planet, though Yixing isn’t sure how offspring of the cat could have _gotten_ here. Does Baekhyun not recognize this? “You remember the last mission we were on together, right? With Jongin and Kyungsoo and Chanyeol?”

“The one with the giant pussy?” Baekhyun nods. “Yeah.”

Since he doesn’t put two and two together, Yixing gives up beating around the bush and does it for him. “This looks _exactly_ like the giant cat that tried to kill you.”

Baekhyun’s eyes widen slightly as he takes another look at the cat, but his face doesn’t change any more. “Eh… but it’s small.”

“It could _grow?”_ Yixing doesn’t care to keep the sass out of his voice. 

“Eh… but it’s cute.”

“…” And Yixing’s supposed to be explaining to him that RF is evil.

 _“Look at it!”_ Baekhyun whines, pushing it close to him. “Look it in the eyes and pet it and _then_ tell it me you think it’s gonna kill you.”

“Okay.” Yixing lifts up a hand to do just that, strategically balling it in a loose fist for A) not being bitten, and B) availability for it to sniff. However, despite the resolve to Do Just That, he can’t help but melt when its large eyes meet his, curious nose nuzzling his fist before rubbing its cheek on his hand.

“Bitch, I _told_ you so~” Baekhyun says when Yixing extends his fingers to gently scratch behind its ears. The cat leans into the touch. It’s a couple more seconds before Baekhyun goes to ruin it.

“You’re being awfully soft, Hyung. Like man, y’all should be fucking every night if it gets you this–“

“For the _last_ time.” Yixing grits, everything tense except for the hand on the cat. “We did _not_ have sex. Sehun was literally _in_ there.”

“Oh, god, you guys _made_ him watch?!” Is the reply. Though Baekhyun’s expression changes to contemplation. “Well, I mean, actually, if y’all paid me, I’d watch too. Or maybe for free. Y’all hot. No homo.”

Yixing stares at a face he knows is trying not to laugh. He sighs and tries to pretend he didn’t just say that. “Where did you find it? This animal.” 

“Um, over there– wait, I can’t point. Okay, behind me to the left. Where we came from.” When Yixing casts a glance in that direction, Baekhyun continues, “I was pissing and then I heard a noise, so I followed it and then _boom:_ pussy!”

“Okay.” Yixing adds another hand to the kitten, which it seems to enjoy. It rolls over in Baekhyun’s hold, giving him full access to the stomach. If that doesn’t say trust, nothing does. Though Yixing himself still stays prepared to jump up and run away if it suddenly expands into a giant killer-feline. Or, at least, this is what he’s telling himself as his muscles relax.

“Hey, what’s that on your hand?” 

At the question, Yixing lifts up the hand that was at the cat’s face, surprised to see a bright green liquid spread across his knuckles. He doesn’t feel any immediate burning, so he figures he is fine. The kitten reaches its head up to nuzzle him once again, which adds more of the substance. 

“Oh! It made some _pussy juice.”_ Baekhyun snickers. Yixing flattens his lips into a thin line, giving a _seriously?_ look. Then, he decides to wipe it on Baekhyun’s cheek. This results in him screeching, not only scaring the daylights out of the kitten but also almost dropping it.

“Woah! Woah!” Jongdae rushes over, easily taking the kitten from Baekhyun who’s more occupied with clawing the stuff off of his face as if it’s acid. “Pussy protective services! You’re no longer eligible to take care of Minseok.”

“It’s _not_ Minseok! That name sucks!”

 _“Sehun!_ That’s _my_ name!”

“My point exactly.”

“Yah! Get over here, you–!” 

Yixing barely dodges an escaping Sehun and an angry Minseok (and a forthwith chasing Junmyeon) to laugh at a hysteric Baekhyun. Jongdae brings the cat over to Chanyeol. Kyungsoo sits a couple feet away from Chanyeol.

Baekhyun doesn’t think it’s funny, though. _“Yixing!_ Do you know how much this is gonna make me break out!? And you don’t even _know_ what it is! How could you put it on my _face?!_ My beautiful _face!”_

Yixing shrugs. “It didn’t hurt my hand, so it shouldn’t hurt your face. Don’t be dramatic.” But, speaking of dramatic, he should probably use this opportunity to take him aside and tell him all about how he’s actually living a lie. He doesn’t know how much longer he has for the breakfast break. He looks around, trying to figure out what Kyungsoo is doing. He has to tell Chanyeol, Jongin, Sehun, and Jongdae, but Yixing doesn’t know who he will choose first. He seems to be eyeing Chanyeol, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary. He’ll know when he starts talking to Jongdae.

When he turns back, Baekhyun’s looking at him expectantly. Had he said something?

“Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.” Yixing says, then looking behind Baekhyun. It’s quite a bit of distance away, but there’s a boulder large enough to give the both of them privacy. That’ll work. Given they aren’t dismissed to start walking or searching again right away. It has been around fifteen minutes since they got up _(“GOODMORNING AGENTS!_ I hope that scared you all.”) and started eating more cubes, so he’s not sure.

“Good. You’ll never know, then.” Baekhyun crosses his arms pettily.

“Okay.” Despite Baekhyun’s scoff, because usually these kinds of things end with the other person begging to know, Yixing moves on. “Also, can you talk? Like, serious talk? In private?”

 _“Serious_ talk?” Baekhyun straightens up, raising a brow. Only for a second his face is actually serious, and then he’s smirking. “What’s this about? _O-M-G,_ did you fuck up last night? –Aha, _fuck_ up– I hope you at least know you’ve gotta do the fingers before the dick, or else it’s gonna really hurt, and lube, did y’all have enough of–“

“No!” Yixing practically shouts, but that’s really the only way to get him to stop talking. Especially when he is on a roll like that, getting louder and louder until someone looks and _haha Yixing’s asking Baekhyun about sex what a loser._ “It’s _not_ about sex. Nothing to do with sex. The sex we literally _did not_ have. It’s nothing to do with– with Junmyeon.”

“You stuttered.” Baekhyun points out, smirk growing wider.

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did.”

“Okay, fine, maybe it’s a little flustering having you perpetuate that I had sex, but it is seriously _not_ about any of that.” This is exactly what Yixing had worried about: Baekhyun not taking anything seriously. “Could you just– just come this way, with me?”

 _“Okay_ Yixing, _okay.”_ Even though Yixing is leading the way, he can still sense Baekhyun’s smile, _feel_ his mirthful (evil) aura, as he heads towards the area he spotted. It almost makes him feel bad to have to ruin this mood and talk about something so terrible. That he’s going to deliberately bring bright and boisterous Baekhyun to a state such as when he caught him crying. But he’s still going to do it.

At this point, what other option is there?

He doesn’t say anything the whole way, looking back once more before hooking around the corner of the large boulder, then leading back against it. He remains standing as to not tempt himself to sleep. Baekhyun finds a spot across from him to sit criss-cross on a rock. At the curious way he looks up, Yixing begins.

“So–“

“By the way,” Never mind. “We’re not naming it Minseok. We already have a Minseok. And he’s close enough to a cat. So I was thinking, like, maybe something to do with EXO? Like, EXO–“

“Would you shut up and let me speak?” Yixing snaps a bit too harshly which results in a slightly offended brow raise.

“Kay, _sorry,_ Mr Zhang.” Baekhyun sasses in a manner he’d talk back to a teacher, leaning onto the rock behind him and brushing his hair back. 

“Okay…” Only now Yixing realizes that he knows what he wants to say, he has been planning that the whole time, but not _how_ to say it. There’s so much and each and everything will come as a complete shock to the other. So how is he supposed to put it in a way that’s not too blunt but also the truth? Kyungsoo said they’ll believe it if he says it right. What’s _right?_ Why hadn’t he asked?!

“Yes, very interesting.” Baekhyun comments when it’s been around ten seconds with no one speaking.

Maybe _right_ is slow, Yixing decides. Despite the time constraint, he should try to make it as least of a big giant _WHAT?!_ to the other as possible. After all, Yixing had around two months to process all of this information, and he had still refused to believe it at some point. He wouldn’t want to lay it all on Baekhyun so suddenly and have him freak out, so he–

“RFkilledYifanandLuhanandZitaobecauseshe’sactuallytryingtodestroyhumanitybecauseshewasmadebyacrazyscientistandYifanandLuhanandZitaohadsuspectedheranddestroyedCFandtriedtodestroyherbutthenwerekilledandnowshesuspectsmeandKyungsoobecauseweinvestigatedallthisandwejustthoughtweshouldletyouknow.”

–Oh.

Now that wasn’t quite what he was going for.

Baekhyun’s big giant _“What?”_ comes with the confusion of a newborn. Yixing knows he heard it but highly doubts he connected everything he was saying. 

“Did you just say… _Yifan, Luhan,_ and _Zitao? Killed?_ By _RF?_ _What?”_

So he got the first sentence.

Yixing nods, “Yeah, um. So, I’ve known about them for a while, the–“

“I know. I’m not stupid.” How did he find out, though?

Yixing pushes it to the back of his mind. “–Okay, well, yeah. And so, um, I’ll just tell you like this: Kyungsoo came to me saying he had suspicions of– wait. Your mic’s off, right?” Suddenly, panic fills him. How could he have forgotten?!

The panic charges the unthought-through impulse to nearly tackle the guy, not exactly considering just _looking_ or _asking_ but rather yanking the mic (and hence Baekhyun’s poor cheek) close to see for himself. He suddenly feels like crying of relief when he sees it’s in the middle slot. God, he almost just ruined it all. On top of already ruining it all. 

“Uh…” Baekhyun’s hesitant sound interrupts the rhythm of the racing thoughts, bringing Yixing back to reality. “It– it’s off… yeah… you…”

 _“Sorry.”_ Yixing immediately scrambles off of him, returning to the spot and resisting the urge to start fanning his hot face. The redness of Baekhyun’s cheeks makes him feel a bit better, though Yixing doesn’t exactly understand it because Baekhyun isn’t the one who did anything embarrassing.

“Should I…” Nor his hesitant voice. Perhaps he _had_ registered everything he said and is now entering that state of shock? Oh, god, Yixing’s not ready for that. He hadn’t prepared. He isn’t prepared. Why had he brought Baekhyun over here again?! “Turn it on?”

“No! No, _don’t_ turn it on. This is a secret.” Yixing says exasperatedly, mustering through all the now jumbled thoughts to get to the point. Where were they? “So Kyungsoo came to me one night, month ago maybe, on Exoplanet, saying he had suspicions of RF. Like, the robot who runs this place.”

“I…” Baekhyun shakes his head and then his fluster disappears. “Kay, one, I _know_ who RF is, dude. I ain't stupid. And what– what do you mean, _secret?”_

“I mean it’s something that stays between me and you, for now. Me and you. Not me and you and Jongdae. Or me and you and Jongdae and Minseok. Just _me_ and _you. Zhang Yixing_ and _Byun_ _Baekhyun._ Seriously. Okay?”

“Um, _alright…”_ Baekhyun again eyes him in that curious way, “What’s this about?”

“It’s about RF and Yifan and Luhan and Zitao. Kyung–”

“What do you mean?”

 _“If you’d let me speak,”_ Yixing’s voice comes out tense enough to earn a chastised silence. “So Kyungsoo thought that RF had something to do with Yifan and Luhan and Zitao’s deaths. As in, had a hand in it. As in, they hadn’t actually died on a mission and Kyungsoo thought there was a true cause that was being kept secret. So we went to the records place to investigate. The place where there’s security footage of the ship. And we found that RF, um, well… murdered them.”

 _“What?”_ Baekhyun’s eyes go wide, because although he had heard it the first time, it’s probably only this time he’s actually processing it. His mouth hangs open, blinking profusely as he repeats. _“What?_ What do you mean?”

“I mean, RF murdered Yifan and Luhan and Zitao.” Yixing reiterates, elaborating. “How we know: we watched the security footage of their last days. The night they were killed, it was a ‘night mission’, but they were actually awake before it. They were in this… a room. They were in a room, because they had suspicions of RF being malicious and wanted to destroy her and were preparing to. You remember CF, right?” Is he going too fast? He probably should have simplified it, shouldn’t he? He’s going too fast, isn’t he?

He is. Baekhyun doesn’t even acknowledge the question. _“RF…_ _killed_ them? The hell do you mean? That’s impossible. RF’s our leader. Are you… is this a joke? Prank? Dude, it’s not funny. I like dark humor and shit, but this is too far. _Don’t_ joke about their deaths. You didn’t even _know_ them.”

“I’m _not_ joking.” Yixing retorts, trying to make meaningful eye contact but Baekhyun’s looking down so it’s kind of hard. “It’s not a joke. I know I might not seem credible, but you can ask Kyungsoo and he’ll tell you this same exact thing. It’s only me telling you because we thought you would listen to me more.”

Then, Baekhyun looks up. Yixing truly feels sorry if he’s searching for the joke, the lie, the exaggeration; anything but the truth. He’s no longer smiling, eyes devoid of their usual sparkle and making Yixing the least bit uncomfortable. He remains quiet until he says something.

“You’re… _not_ kidding? Not lying? But you…” Perhaps Baekhyun needs more context. But before that, Yixing has to assure him he’s not lying.

“I wouldn’t lie to you about something like this. What would I get out of it? Nothing.”

Despite the reassurance, this only seems to stress Baekhyun out even more. “No… you can’t be… what do you mean? I don’t get it…”

“How about I explain all of the details, so it makes more sense to you.” Yixing offers, hoping Baekhyun will say yes because he plans on doing it anyway.

“Um…” Baekhyun’s voice suddenly changes tone and Yixing becomes scared. It’s proven valid when there’s suddenly a laugh.

A _laugh._

“Yixing-hyung…” Baekhyun talks slow, as if speaking to a small child. The mood shifts. “I… I don’t mean to be rude, but are you _okay?_ Like, in the head?”

A bad feeling resonates in Yixing’s chest. He knows from here it goes downhill. “Yes, I’m okay. I’m completely fine. I’m aware what I’m telling you is crazy. But–“

“It’s fucking _mental.”_ A similar feeling of the hopelessness he had felt with Kyungsoo permeates, especially when he sees Baekhyun’s expression: a kind of mirthful disbelief. Yixing meets his eyes and they’re not the ones of a friend. _“Why_ do you hate RF so much? Like, first you were all weird when you came to the meetings, and now you’re here telling me this. Are you like, _scared_ of her?”

Because Baekhyun hasn’t ever been trapped between the metal body and the closed door, begging for his life to something incapable of sympathy.

“Well– _yes,_ but…” Yixing’s mind races for what will make Baekhyun believe him. They’re slipping down the slope of Yixing’s Insane and that’s the _last_ thing he needs to happen. He tries to focus on this but at the same time, the prospect of reality, Kyungsoo’s reaction after Yixing doesn’t get this through to Baekhyun, will be. He’ll hate him even more. He’ll say he didn’t even try. Will he get so upset with him that he’ll throw Yixing under the bus to RF and then _he’ll_ be the fourth one who’s died on a mission? No, no, that’s ridiculous, don’t–

“Well, you shouldn’t be…” Baekhyun’s lips thin. “I know she looks scary, and usually everyone’s scared of her when they first get here, but she’s great. She’ll give you anything you ask for as long as it’s in her power, and– oh! You haven’t even had a birthday or Christmas here yet. Just wait till that. And she’s a really good therapist, too. I’d say you should go to her, but...” A laugh.

“That’s–“ Yixing’s voice breaks with frustration. He’s past any chance of belief, isn’t he? “What makes you so close-minded to the possibility that she had killed them? We literally have evidence. On Exoplanet, there’s evidence. If you don’t want to trust me, there’s evidence.” But didn’t Kyungsoo say all they truly have is each other? So they’d trust each other? “And– and even so, wouldn’t you think it’s suspicious that all _three_ had died on the same _one_ mission that just _happened_ to be in the _middle of the night?”_ He hasn’t even gotten to the most important part, the part where RF’s trying to destroy humanity, and the just as important part, the call for action. We’ll meet later, all nine of us, to discuss what to do.

Baekhyun looks at him like he’s crazy. He shifts position to stand up so they’re looking face to face. His downturned eyes narrow. His voice comes a bit deeper than usual.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re dealing with privately, but _don’t_ use them as pawns in your little conspiracy theory. That’s _so_ fucking disrespectful. The– the hell’s wrong with you?”

 _Conspiracy theory…_ He’s not going to convince him.

“No, no, that’s _not_ what I’m trying to do, that’s _not_ what I mean. It’s _not_ a conspiracy.” He says, but how can he convince someone who thinks he’s lost his mind?

“Then _what_ is it that you mean? Hm?” The way Baekhyun’s looking at him throws him into the setting of two months ago, when Baekhyun absolutely loathed him and did everything in his power to make his life miserable. Of course, now, he’s not trying to do that, but there’s still one parallel: the _hatred._

How can their relationship revert so fast? Was there anything real there in the first place?

“I mean…” Yixing means what he said, what will saying that do? “Baekhyun, _please_ , can you at least be open-minded and _hear_ me out? Let me say everything I want to say? And then respond? It’ll make sense, everything I’m saying will make sense, if you let me talk–”

“God _damn._ You– you really are crazy, aren’t you?” Baekhyun’s eyes widen in an amused way, though his voice holds a little bit of fear. Fear of _him?_ “You know, I’ve always thought you were kind of a weirdo, but I never thought you were this full out _mental._ Is it– is it sick conspiracies like _that_ going on inside your head when you zone out like a retard?”

Yixing tries to ignore how that kind of _(how much that…)_ hurts and continues to be civil because he knows what happens when he isn’t. “No, it’s not. I’m not crazy. Please just listen to me, let me explain everything I want to explain, and then you can judge after–“

“Actually, I think I’ve had _quite_ enough of listening to you for the day.” Baekhyun says it casually, as if he just _doesn’t care._ He turns on his heel, and when Yixing grabs his wrist because he doesn’t know what else to do, Baekhyun yanks it away from him and puts his hands up in a defensive manner. As if he thinks Yixing is going to _attack_ him.

“Stay away, dude.” There’s a laugh because it’s funny how insane Yixing is. Baekhyun’s voice trembles. “To be honest, just _stay away_ until you get some help. You can ask RF or whatever, whenever you get over that fear of yours. And, no offense, but join another group for today’s search. We don’t want you.”

Did they ever?

 _We don’t want you_ echoes with each step the white hightops take back to the central group. When Yixing feels panic tighten his chest because despite telling Baekhyun this is a secret, he _hadn’t_ reiterated the point that it absolutely _can’t_ be told and _especially_ to RF and _especially_ since Baekhyun likes to tell secrets, it’s _we don’t want you_ that stops him from chasing after him. But maybe it’s for the better.

Baekhyun frolics back to the group. He gets clapped on the back by Jongdae who hands him the kitten and he’s immersed into laughing conversation with him and Chanyeol. Meanwhile, Yixing sinks down against the rock and puts his head in his hands.

 _So this is how Kyungsoo felt…_

Five minutes later he snaps back awake at the call of _“AGENTS!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that went extremely well! Can't wait for the next one😍
> 
> also yes the kitty is the one from the power mv 
> 
> until next week! also happy new year!


	47. The Power of Persuasion 2/3 (Ft. Special Guests)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing attempts to tell Minseok he's been living a lie.

_It’s not your fault. It’s Baekhyun’s._

**NO MATTER HOW** many times he repeats it in his head it still doesn’t seem to get through.

It’s not Yixing’s fault Baekhyun doesn’t believe him. In fact, assessing the situation from an impartial eye, maybe he shouldn’t be too surprised Baekhyun had called him crazy and left. The statement Yixing gave was so bold, and despite telling Baekhyun to focus on the message rather than the messenger, there’s no ignoring that yes, Yixing didn’t even _know_ Yifan or Luhan or Zitao. Yixing isn’t trusted like everyone else. So it does make sense Baekhyun had reacted in that way, insulting Yixing and pushing himself further from belief.

Yixing tries to stay like this, positive. Yixing, it’s only one out of three, would Kyungsoo even be surprised that Baekhyun responded that way?, but something else nags at him. It’s how quick Baekhyun had gone from cupping his face asking him if he’s alright to scoffing and telling him to stay away. Of course, a relationship with Byun Baekhyun requires awareness of volatility, such as when his inseparable best friend Jongdae received what very well could’ve been the most personal insult out of a mere petty fight, meaning Yixing shouldn’t be so sensitive about this, but he still can’t help but wonder if this was too far. He hasn’t ever been in this kind of situation where he has to talk to somebody about _their_ trauma and tell them how almost everything they’ve thought about it is wrong.

And Baekhyun doesn’t like Yixing like he loves Jongdae. With Jongdae, they’ll return to being attached at the sides a couple days later. With Yixing… did Baekhyun mean his ‘stay away’ forever?

_It’ll all be better after tonight,_ Yixing dismisses the thought. Tonight, they’ll meet, and they’ll have no choice but to believe it all because credible and trusted Kyungsoo will be saying it too, giving evidence, and Baekhyun will feel bad for lashing out at him and apologize and Yixing will say it’s okay and they’ll be back to normal (with, of course, the outcome of what’s discussed tonight). Kyungsoo’s another story, but they will eventually make up. After all, Yixing has chosen him over RF. It’ll get better. There’s no need to worry.

Worry about Baekhyun and Kyungsoo, that is. Now he’s got Minseok on his mind.

Between them, the only thing that has changed from the day he left Yixing to cry himself to sleep with bruises and twitching muscles and now is that Yixing never talks unless it’s a reply to a question (and even then it’s usually a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’).

Besides that, Yixing doesn’t know what makes Kyungsoo think he and Minseok are close. Although they spend hours upon hours together, just one on one, the time has only earned familiarity. They have never had any kind of deep breakthrough conversation, and they have little in common anyway. Minseok’s athletic (AKA likes everything that terrifies Yixing) and that’s really his only personality trait other than an aggravating insistence for cleanliness and two dispositions of shrill coyness or violent pettiness both equally as odious. Yixing has never found any route of connection despite their time together and he’s absolutely positive Minseok holds not an ounce of trust for him. He had probably lost it after the fifth or seventeenth time Yixing said he was sick to get out of training.

Yixing sets his expectations low and prepares to be called crazy again.

It wasn’t long after Baekhyun went back to the group that they were called to start traveling to an area donned ‘Base 2’. RF told them SE_1 will be there for sure and after a short break upon arrival, they are to search within a five-mile radius for the remainder of the day. If they don’t find it, they will have another rest period and repeat the same process. Yixing spends the walking duration with Junmyeon and Sehun, trying to ignore everything having to do with Baekhyun except at the same time feeling fear soak through him every time Baekhyun whispers something that makes Jongdae giggle (which is about every sixty seconds). Fatigue really starts to kick in after the first hour of walking and he strategizes to close his eyes when it’s flat, but then he unstrategizes to close his eyes because he trips when it’s not flat anymore and scrapes his knee but he didn’t know it was not flat anymore because he had his eyes closed. So, he just ends up yawning every thirty seconds and desperately trying to tune in to whatever conversations there are with the people that don’t currently despise him– a number, that, these days, seems to be ticking down by the minute.

When RF tells them they’re nearing the destination, Yixing sluggishly rises from his mental haze and looks up for the first time in that hour. The land doesn’t look any different at all. Shocker. (But did something just _move?_ No, no, he’s just seeing things, like he has been).

They are given fifteen minutes to rest and drink water (courtesy to Junmyeon), which gives Yixing fifteen minutes to talk to Minseok, or at least get in the same search group as him to let him know. However, both of these become increasingly difficult when A. Minseok goes off somewhere with his boyfriend which makes fifteen minutes five, and B. Minseok goes off somewhere with his boyfriend meaning they’ve made up and they’ll probably be in a group and C. Yixing doesn’t want to deal with that and D. It will probably include Baekhyun.

The tiniest – yet the only – window of opportunity opens when they return, Minseok going to Jongin who has been watching over the kitty (“RF, can we keep it? Please?!” “It may have the ability to explode.” “So that’s a yes?!”) and Jongdae going to Baekhyun. Since Junmyeon took a detour to go to the bathroom, Yixing has just been sitting here trying to not fall asleep (with his cheek on his knees and his eyes closed because _that_ will help him stay awake) with Chanyeol. He doesn’t bother to excuse himself or anything as he heads over.

“Hi.” Yixing says, but it’s more to the creature than either of the guys.

“Hey– oh, you were talking to the cat.” Minseok thins his lips, pushing Yixing’s hand off of the kitty’s head to scratch it himself. Jongin’s the one holding it.

“Yeah, but hi to you too.” Now he’s supposed to ask him to talk alone. Especially since there’s not much time. Anticipation buzzes throughout his body, especially his feet that just want to _hurry up._ “Um, so Hy–“

“Hyung!” Jongin interrupts and Yixing refrains from screaming, “Did you and Dae decide on a name when you were gone? Like you said you were doing?”

At Minseok’s slightly widened eyes, Yixing gets the slightest of a hunch that deciding on a name wasn’t quite what they were doing. (And god, on a _mission? Seriously?)._

“Um, not yet. Sorry.” 

Jongin frowns, nodding. “It’s just so _hard._ I’ve been staring at it for like an hour, but I still can’t think of the perfect name. But it can’t go nameless, because then that’s like being invisible.”

Yixing, who calls his cat _Cat,_ would beg to differ, but he says nothing. Instead, he focuses on the task at hand: Go Away Jongin. Or, alternatively, Let’s Go Away From Jongin.

“Very insightful, yes,” Yixing says hurriedly, then looking at Minseok. “Minseok-hyung, can I talk to you for a second?” (In reality he needs like a half hour, but he decided to round down).

“What? _Why?”_ Minseok raises a brow. From his childlike features Yixing can’t tell whether it’s hostile or curious. 

“Well…” Jongin looks and Yixing takes a second to come up with something that won’t make it hostility. “I mean in private. I want to talk in private. Please.”

“… _Alright…”_ Minseok eyes him with pure suspicion and it takes everything to not cower from the gaze. Yixing feels strange giving commands to who's usually commanding him, so he just backs up a couple paces and then the hint is taken and Minseok starts to walk as well. Jongin is too occupied with the cat to even notice.

He looks back to make sure he’s being followed, they’re not being watched, and then heads to the small corner of a cave he had scoped out about five minutes ago.

“What’s this about?” Minseok asks as they’re walking, “You’re going kind of fast.”

“Sorry.” Yixing slows down his pace. He’s rushed and nervous, though he does have a slight idea of what he’s going to do. He’s not going to say RFkilledYifanandLuhanandZitaobecauseshe’sactuallytryingtodestroyhumanitybecauseshewasmadebyacrazyscientistandYifanandLuhanandZitaohadsuspectedheranddestroyedCFandtriedtodestroyherbutthenwerekilledandnowshesuspectsmeandKyungsoobecauseweinvestigatedallthisandwejustthoughtweshouldletyouknow, but rather begin with the seemingly more believable clause: RF’s using us to destroy the world. It was probably the fault of bringing up Yifan and Luhan and Zitao’s death before anything else that Baekhyun had gotten so upset and in a state refusing to listen to anything else.

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He doesn’t want to fabricate something, but he also doesn’t want to get _straight_ into it. He’s not sure what his reaction will be. Yet, he’s running out of time. So, Yixing decides to beat around the bush, get into the mood, but with a bit of pace.

Suddenly, he stops.

Remembering the mic, Yixing turns to a confused Minseok, pointing to the comm unit near his cheek because tackling Baekhyun was probably not the best choice either. “That’s off, right?”

“Uh,” Minseok brings a hand to it, nodding. “Yeah. RF had me do it yesterday. Do you want me to–“

_“No!_ Keep it off, please.” Yixing says a bit too quickly and a bit too loudly. Just to check, he squints at Minseok’s mic. 

“Yix–“

“I just wanted to say sorry, Hyung.” By now, they’re around the corner. They’re enclosed so they can lean on parallel rocks. Minseok’s eyes narrow as he settles opposite to him. His face doesn’t say whether he’s confused or scrutinous, but Yixing knows better.

“Sorry for what?” Minseok asks, though it’s really more a prompt.

“For what I did a couple weeks ago ago…” He figures it’s better to not explain what it was, they both know anyway. “It was a really shitty thing to do… and I know what it’s like, actually, to have something– _one_ some _one–_ use what you’re scared of against you. And how… weak that makes you feel. I’m really sorry.” It then occurs to him: wait, what he’s saying actually makes sense. Maybe he should be sorry. But it’s a _should be,_ because it’s clear from the mere fact that Yixing is only apologizing because he needs something from Minseok (a stable relationship and slightly favourable mood to tell him this stuff) that he’s not. Besides, Yixing couldn’t whole-heartedly be sorry. Quite frankly, anybody would be scared if they went through what Yixing did, but sympathy only goes so far for something irrational like Minseok’s fears.

_Or maybe you’re just a shitty person. Like Kyungsoo said. Why do you keep being surprised nobody actually likes you?_

“It’s about time.” Minseok responds which doesn’t quite say whether that aforementioned stable relationship and slightly favourable mood was obtained or not. “You did this almost a month ago. What took so long to apologize?”

“Well–“ Yixing keeps his voice stable because he needs Minseok to not absolutely hate him even if he’s making that superiority act that just _pisses him off._ “I should have apologized earlier, I know, but… I just really hated you after the first weapons training. Not that I still hate you– well, actually–“ He stutters as he speaks too much and Minseok’s brows raising and eyes widening doesn’t help, “I mean– _anyway,_ regardless of how I feel about you, I still shouldn’t have done it.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have.” Minseok says because he just has to go and make Yixing feel worse (though in reality it’s just more indignant, and you know what? He still regrets nothing. Fuck Minseok). However, as Yixing’s thinking this, a softer tone continues, “But thank you. You seem sincere.”

Yixing notes the doubt in his working. “I _am_ sincere.”

“Hope so…” Minseok looks down. It seems it’s working as his tone continues to lose the spite. “You know, you’ve been really quiet recently...”

“I have found it easier to just not complain.” Or talk. Or try. He… he doesn't really know what he's doing at this point. In reality, he’s probably just making it a more difficult process before he dies or something. It all goes by like a blur.

“Oh. Makes sense…” Minseok then straightens up from the rock. “Well, is that all?”

“No– no, that’s not all.” Yixing rushes in, “There’s also something I want to… _ask_ you.”

“Yeah?” Minseok’s back against the rock.

“What do you… um, think about RF?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean what I said: what do you think about RF? Opinion.” It’s not information he’ll actually use, but he plans to slowly bring Minseok into the topic, as one would do in a movie. Or therapy. This resolve, however, struggles against the time constraint. Everything sounds a little distant in the anticipation of _AGENTS!_

“Uh, she’s cool, I guess.” Minseok shrugs. “She’s funny a lot. And mean a lot, but that’s usually funny too. Smart. I don’t get what you want me to say?”

“Do you trust her?” Yixing asks. Usually, he wouldn’t be so opaque. But right now, it’s part of his plan (the ‘plan’ in question: um what to do what to do ok I should probably be slow yeah let’s do that I have to pee maybe I should've went with Junmyeon earlier wait no is that weird that's probably weird).

“Yeah. I mean, why wouldn’t you trust her? She’s programmed.” Yixing would’ve laughed had he been more awake. “Why?”

“Okay… what if I told you that she’s actually _un_ trustworthy?” _And planning to end us and the human species like she had Yifan and Luhan and– no, Yixing, take it slow. Take it slow in the less than five minutes you have. God, less than five minutes I have. The less than five minutes I have. The less than five minutes I have. The less than five minutes I–_

“I don’t know… Yixing, you’re being very vague. You’re usually not like this. Can you just tell me what you’re trying to say?” Minseok then concludes his intelligent observation with, “I won’t judge.”

“That’s– that’s not exactly what I’m worried about...” Yixing replies. But this is good. This is where he wanted to be: somewhere that Minseok is curious, so he’s more apt to take in the information. 

“But here’s what I’m trying to say: RF is bad.” An understatement, but it’ll do.

Minseok’s brows raise, “What do you mean, _bad?_ Why?”

“So, basically,” Maybe the outcome will actually be different if Yixing starts with this? He knows he shouldn’t feel hope yet he feels himself reanimating as he explains, will it be one of those far and few times Minseok actually _understands?_ “She’s actually using us. We’re not actually here to save the universe. And I know that sounds crazy. It does sound crazy. But me and Kyungsoo, he’s in this too, investigated through the information center and records and realized that RF is actually, to put it simply, _evil.”_

At this, he waits to gauge a reaction. For a couple moments Minseok’s face remains blank, falters, and wait, is he about to cry?

No. Laugh. He’s about to laugh.

“That’s funny.” He snorts, “RF’s _evil._ Oooh~”

“No, I’m serious.” Yixing almost pulls the _I-know-the-real-reason-your-friends-are-dead_ card because they’re running out of time here!, but restrains himself as it’s on the tip of his tongue. “Minseok, seriously, I’m _not_ kidding,” He has to grab the other’s shoulders to stabilize him, but that’s apparently very funny as well. “Dude, seriously…” A surge of frustration in his chest and he’s too tired to stop the subsequent, “What the _hell_ is wrong with you?”

With the sudden aggression, Minseok’s eyes widen. He straightens up. “Wait… you’re… being serious?”

“Yes!” Did he think he was kidding when he literally said he was being serious?!

“Oh. Okay. Wait… you actually think RF’s _evil?”_ His brows knit as if Yixing had just said something like _the Earth is flat_. The mirthful mood shifts to a doubtful one.

“I _know_ RF is evil.” And for persuasion purposes, “So does Kyungsoo. We’re telling everybody in private what we found, so we can be inconspicuous.” 

“Why would she be evil? She’s literally a robot. She’s programmed.” 

“Yeah, so, about that: she’s programmed by a mad scientist… when Kyungsoo and I were doing research on the person who made this place, we found a bunch of articles from Earth about this guy, the one who built EXO, Eugênio Vermillion, and how he was pretty much a psychopath. He wanted to end humanity.”

“Woah,” Minseok’s parted lips tell Yixing he might believe him, but it’s more of a fantastic belief; as if he thinks this is a cool story. He doesn’t seem to realize what it means.

So Yixing puts it together for him. “RF is built by a guy who wanted to kill all humans. Which means RF is not saving the universe but actually trying to kill all humans.”

“Wait… what? What do–“

“Let me elaborate.” Yixing silences him. He takes a glance out to the group and his talking becomes a bit quicker. “So, RF’s goal is to try to kill all humans on Earth and she’s going to have the power do this when the Tree of Life is purified we’re not actually saving the universe, we’re helping RF gain the power she needs, which is channeled through the Tree of Life, we figured this out through investigating a series of things we found suspicious around this place. Me and Kyungsoo.”

This goes surprisingly easier than he thought. Minseok nods throughout his explanation and the only negative emotion Yixing notices is how his eyes are wide.

“Um, wow.” He says at last. He looks down to the ground, Yixing’s shoes, his own shoes, then back at him. It’s so fucking _slow_ and everything in Yixing tells him to scream ‘hurry up!’.

“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?” A large bout of disappointment seeps through him, yet why had he expected anything else? “I’m not buying it. I’m not as stupid as you think. And I’m not afraid to beat you up, just so you know.”

“I’m–” He just has to scoff, because shouldn’t it be pretty fucking evident that Yixing’s not lying? “I’m not. You–“ _No, sympathize. Be kind. That’s the key to persuasion._ “Listen, I _know_ it sounds crazy. Seriously. It does. It is. I didn’t believe it either. But we have so much proof. Kyungsoo’s in this too, you can ask him and he’ll tell you the same thing. RF’s actually bad.”

“So you’re not…” Minseok shakes his head, then saying, “What ‘proof’, then? Some _articles?_ I thought you were smart?”

“They’re not…” Two options come to Yixing. 1) Defend the articles of which only one he has read, or 2) Do the only thing that will make Minseok take him seriously which will consequently make Minseok take him like a crazy person.

So he goes with using what Kyungsoo had used against him. “You haven’t even seen–“

“Yixing…” Minseok speaks slowly, meeting his eyes. His voice has softened to a type of gentleness he has never seen before, yet it worries Yixing the most.

“Do you ever feel…” His gaze holds a type of soft sincerity he has also never seen. “Like, um, _out of control?_ In your mind?”

Any spark of hope is extinguished.

Minseok continues. “Do you like, see things nobody else does? Hear things nobody else does…? Because if so, there’s stuff on the ship that can help. Back then… when I came here, I used to have problems accepting everything, so my perception got a little messed up and I started to think all these weird things…” 

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Everybody telling him he’s crazy almost makes him think he’s not allowed to be stressed and afraid. Maybe he really isn’t. Maybe it just makes him worse of a person. Because he doesn’t know what it’s like, does he?

“I’m just a little worried.” Minseok frowns. “You seem like a pretty stable guy, but here everyone’s–“

_“Just tell me_ if you believe me or not.” Yixing sighs, frustration trembling in his breath. Three months with these people and for _what_ trust? Yet, on the other hand, Yixing reminds himself: these people can’t imagine RF being against them just as Yixing couldn’t imagine being in space to save the universe.

More of the sinking feeling as he makes eye contact with doubt. Minseok doesn’t even need to say it. Neither Baekhyun nor Minseok believing it almost makes Yixing question if Junmyeon will.

However, he’s done his job nonetheless. They both have the information and he has done all he can. Kyungsoo can’t get mad at him for that, can he?

Another glance around the corner and Yixing almost says it’s fine, never mind, go away, but then remembers another way he had went wrong with Baekhyun. 

_“Hyung,”_ Yixing entreats softly. Minseok looks up. “Can you do me a favor and not tell anyone about this?”

“Um, yeah, sure. Of course.” Minseok responds in such a tone as if talking to a child. The one that’s patronizing to the point where only such naivety would believe him.

“Seriously. I mean it. Please don’t tell anyone… Even if you’re worried about me, don’t. I’ll solve it myself. I don’t want any attention. Not even RF.” Yixing doesn’t mind being pinned crazy for now if it means Minseok won’t talk. Besides, if Minseok had just confessed a past of the similar, then it’s beneficial to cater to his pity in that area. _“I don’t want people to think I’m crazy…”_

“...Right, I understand, Yixing.” Comes in a much more genuine tone, and Yixing knows he’s got him. “I won’t. Don’t worry.”

“Thanks. It means a lot.” He looks up for Meaningful Eye Contact, however he quickly encounters Scared Eye Contact. Minseok’s eyes are suddenly widened and Yixing’s brows furrow. 

“Yixing…” Comes slowly.

“What?” Why is Minseok suddenly looking at him like that? What’s wrong? Had he just realized something? _Is_ he going crazy? Sure he’s had dark spots in the corners his vision and a bunch of times where he thought he saw a spider when he didn’t, but he hasn’t gotten to full on delusions yet!

Minseok’s widened eyes lift to something above Yixing. Above his head. “There’s…” There’s a what? _What?_ What is it?! “Don’t move…”

Every muscle in Yixing’s body tenses as Minseok lifts his hands. There’s something _above_ him. _What?_ As far as Yixing knows, which has been about thirty hours of experience, there is no life on this planet except for that kitten. But even so, how could a kitten latch onto the boulder like that without being seen? Maybe there’s some way, but then why does Minseok look so bewildered? It can’t be a kitten. So what is it?!

It all happens in one quick movement: probably intending to use his power, Minseok flares his hands towards the mystery above Yixing’s head. But instead of any ice shooting out, what happens instead is that the said mystery manifests itself in the form of a fast-moving projectile launched straight towards him. Something the same color of the stone latches onto Minseok’s _face_ and, on reflex, Yixing whips out his gun and cocks it and points it at Minseok’s face but then realizes _he just pointed it at Minseok’s face_ and instead takes out the knife but by that time Minseok has already fought it off his face to the ground and he’s full of scratches and–

_BAM!_ The bullet sparks as it bounces off the ground in the missed target’s wake. He quickly drops the gun and uses something he’s more confident with, his hands, to lift the knife and, in a swift motion, dive forward and slam it down into the center of the creature.

A _squelch_ makes him cringe.

Yixing can hear his heart as time starts again, knuckles white on the handle of the knife. He doesn’t let go, afraid it’ll spring up and attack him, so he just inspects what it is. It looks like a _stone._ Simply one of the perfectly shaped ovals found amongst this planet. However, upon pulling out the knife, a liquid spurts out.

He scoots back as to not be hit with the liquid, watching as the stone pathetically tries to lift itself up. Yixing notices there are little tiny, also smooth but sharp, leg-claws under it. They disappear when the creature collapses and remains still. So _these_ are what he had been seeing.

“Oh– oh my _god…”_ Yixing balks at the creature, the bloody (would he even call it blood though? It’s like black water) knife, his hands. He just killed something. He just _killed a space creature._ He just did that. His chest is heaving like he had ran a hundred miles and not just stabbed a rock.

“Nice one.” Minseok says as if being _attacked by a fucking stone_ is nothing out of the ordinary. Yixing turns and cringes at Minseok’s face, which is now lined with scratches all over the sides, as if something was trying to eat his face whole. “You’ve grown some good reflexes, Xing. I’m proud.”

So Minseok clearly hadn’t seen when Yixing pointed the gun at his face.

_“...yeah…”_

“What?” Minseok senses his discomfort. “Oh,” He laughs, “my face. Right. It’s scratched, isn’t it?” He lifts a hand up to feel it. “Well, at least it’s not bleeding.”

How is this guy not absolutely mortified?! How is he going on as if this is completely normal?! 

_Because it is completely normal, obviously,_ Yixing tells himself. He knows this, he’s lived through this ‘normal’ for three months, yet he can’t close his dropped jaw and speak coherently. “That… thing… I… me, you…” Maybe he really _is_ going insane. But still: how is _this_ accepted but not RF trying to destroy the world?! They’re both taking an equal toll on Yixing’s sanity!

“What?”

“Never… never mind…” Yixing slowly grabs the gun and stands, – enduring the vertigo and – tucking it into his belt because he’s more useful with the knife. Maybe his reluctant laziness in weapon training won’t come back to bite him in the ass too hard.

Minseok’s scratched face softens in realization, _“Ah,_ I get it. This is your first kill! Or any kind of real fight, for that matter!” He slings an arm around Yixing as if his current injuries require no attention whatsoever. “Congrats!”

“Thanks…” Yixing mutters, a bit aloof. Amongst the always-growing list of things, Zhang Yixing never ever thought he would have to kill something to defend himself, especially that thing being a rock space creature thing on a foreign planet because he’s trying to save Earth via not saving the universe. Despite having done similar things numerous times in video games, it’s a whole different experience in real life because it’s not just his thumbs and fingers involved. Suddenly, Yixing realizes he’s never had an adrenaline rush in video games _anywhere_ near this strong. He has really been missing out. But maybe that’s a good thing, because he momentarily feels like he can float and that’s probably not very good. And–

_“Yah!_ Yixing!”

“Huh?” The adrenaline also snaps him right back to attention as opposed to the usual process: _haha are they talking… maybe I should listen… okay… going to listen… listening…_ sorry, what did you say?

“I think we’ve got a problem…” 

At the cinematic line, Yixing, in contrast to the movies, snaps his head up towards the exit because looking up slowly is terrifying, and realizes that about five of the same thing _have risen from the fucking ground._

Even worse, as he’s staring in a petrified state, another _gargantuan_ one comes scuttling around the corner and sits itself right in front of the exit. The light of the stars goes away within a couple of seconds and the two space boys are left in the dark amongst several things that want to kill them.

_“Fuck no,_ no, no, _no,”_ Yixing breaks into panic and damn, here he _just_ was thinking he would evade the consequences of laziness! He grips onto Minseok harder than he had the knife, willing himself to just disappear right there or teleport or fucking _something,_ but all that happens is that his heart speeds up even more and he can’t breathe and oh god he should’ve went pee earlier and listen! Listen, he’s talking!

“Stay still,” Minseok says and Yixing is glad because that is currently the _only_ thing he is capable of. Everything goes out of focus for a second.

Yixing’s desperate hold on Minseok’s arm is lost when the other makes an emphatic movement. In time with it, there’s a booming _CRUNCH_ before suddenly, everything is humming with proximity and all Yixing sees around them is a faint but opaque blue. Their breathing becomes extremely loud and coldness seeps into Yixing’s clothes, sending a shiver down his spine.

“Hello, hello?” Yixing hears Minseok’s voice in double. “Help. Yixing and I trapped by creatures. At meeting place little off towards large boulder, now covered up. Going to be attacked soon.”

It’s only now Yixing finally gets himself together (though he’s _not_ letting go of Minseok) and realizes what is going on. Minseok had enclosed them in an ice cube thing. He squints to try to see through the ice, what’s happening. All of the sudden, something lurches at him and a _BANG!_ reverberates through the structure. Yixing isn’t proud of it but he _jumps_ into Minseok, earning himself a shove to the ice wall that cracks. 

“Fuck! Control yourself!” Minseok’s volume is as painful as if he were yelling straight into his ears.

Yet Yixing goes right back to his side, hands clenching around his bicep even if he tries to shake him off again because if it’s Minseok or the creatures, he’s choosing the human no matter how shitty they are. “I’m being fucking _attacked_ moron!” 

“Yah! How old are you now?!”

“SERIOUSLY?!” 

_“Hello?!”_ Kyungsoo’s rushed voice comes in, “Where are you guys?!”

Oh, good! Kyungsoo! Good! People know they’re in trouble! Good! He’s going to live! Good!

Another stone launches itself at Yixing and it takes everything he has to not wrap his arms around the other and squeeze for dear life.

As Minseok’s struggling to detail where they are, Yixing does the only thing he can and thinks: they’re barricaded twice over, in which the second barricade is being broken by creatures that attack via blunt force and sharp claws. At the least, they need Kyungsoo’s strength to break the first barricade and crush the creatures. Even if Kyungsoo hates him right now, it’s life and death they’re dealing with. They need Jongin’s teleportation to get them out of there. They should have more to help out with the numbers.

Yixing flips the mic’s switch downwards and practically shouts, “Kyungsoo and Jongin! Kyungsoo there’s creatures disguised as the stones and–” He yelps at another slam to the ice. There’s now a crack. He’s shivering.

“And large one-half height of human blocking cave entrance twenty or so feet away from base they will die by stabbing and we need Jongin to get us out of here and we need people to hold off there are several other smallers attacking where Minseok and I are barricaded in ice, Minseok,” Yixing turns to the moron (Hyung), “thicken the barricade to reinforce it there’s a–” _SLAM!_ “Crack! There’s a crack! Hurry up!”

_SLAM!_

Wide eyed, Minseok just gapes, aghast at the sudden authority for a moment before actually doing what he says. He yanks his arm out of Yixing’s grip to then pull Yixing tight to him, and the other arm he glides all around them, thickening the inside of the barrier. Yixing thanks Randomness he doesn’t happen to be claustrophobic as the walls close in. It’s so frigid to the point that it’s starting to hurt, Minseok’s hot breath on his neck is like ice, and _shit_ why is Yixing facing outwards so he gets to see the things trying to kill him?! Or would inwards where he couldn’t see it be worse?!

_SLAM!_ The heads of the stones but into the ice, successfully breaking through the outside layer. He can’t breathe and it’s getting harder not because it’s hot, but because it’s so cold. He can’t tell the difference between the ice and Minseok’s body pressed up against his and the only thing that keeps him going is the adrenaline. The two of them panting quickly uses all of the oxygen from the enclosed space.

There are shouts through the comm unit Yixing can no longer make out, he’s suffocating and everything gets fuzzy. He waits the longest moments he has ever in his life, wondering why the _hell_ Zhang Jiashuai, born in Chengdu, China to a single mother just _had_ to turn into Zhang Yixing on planet #1563 cowering for his life inside a giant ice cube with this one dude he just told is going to be killed by the robot they’re all being manipulated by to destroy the world.

When even the banging becomes quiet, Yixing _finally_ sees light. Like a lightning bolt in a dark storm, light floods in as whatever was blocking the entry way is crushed by a – real – boulder. 

With ice-hindered vision, Yixing catches the comedic sight of a small figure tossing a rock twice his size behind him. He still isn’t able to breathe but a bout of relief washes through what is left of him that feels. He doesn’t know what Minseok’s going to say or what anyone’s going to say because they aren’t speaking already so Yixing does.

_“Minseok break the shelter Jongin come in and out in one quick motion.”_ Despite his quick and breathless speaking it’s understood by each and every one of them, and suddenly the air is _much_ warmer.

At that moment, Yixing goes over what he just said and maybe that was a mistake because something suddenly jumps at him, but at the same time he feels a third human presence around them and then: air!

Yixing’s stomach flips and he loses all sense of balance, as if the scales in his brain abruptly broke, and he falls in such a way that he just barely brings his hands out under him in time to not crack his head open. But still, he slams it off the ground. Someone else lands on him in a similar manner. He is momentarily powerless so all he does is heave in air, precious air, which is mixed with groans in pain and see that near the boulder, where they just were, Kyungsoo’s crushing the little creatures with rocks. They look like beetles, now, Yixing realizes. Like disguising stone beetles.

When Kyungsoo successfully squashes all of the beetles, with the help of Jongin relocating him every couple seconds so as to not get hit, Yixing is still on the ground. He’s pretty sure Minseok has gotten up and kicked him in the side several times, but he only flips over onto his back when he’s sure he’s safe and Kyungsoo and Jongin are headed back in their direction.

“Come on, get up,” Minseok’s voice is unimpressed like in sparring, but, unlike in sparring, he actually offers a hand.

Yixing doesn’t sass and takes it, standing and brushing himself off. There’s a moment that they share eye contact, him and Minseok, and Minseok suddenly seems a whole lot less annoyed with him. Yixing isn’t sure if it’s from the situation or his pity for the crazy, but Minseok seems to actually genuinely _like_ him.

“That wasn’t so bad for your first alien encounter, Xing,” He brushes off his shoulders as if Yixing hadn’t just been doing that. “I mean, I could’ve gone without you clinging onto me, but you’re actually a really quick thinker. I didn’t expect you to take the lead. Respect, dude.”

Yixing finds himself not totally despising the back-handed compliment. “Thanks...” 

Minseok ruffles his hair and then Kyungsoo and Jongin suddenly appear. There’s a light sweat on Jongin’s forehead and a bleeding scratch on Kyungsoo’s neck.

“Good job, Yixing-hyung! You were awesome!” Jongin beams, making a cheerful gesture before teleporting away. Even Kyungsoo’s glare isn’t as scrutinous as before when he scans him up and down, looking between him and Minseok, giving an affirmative nod, and then walking away.

“Yixing!” Calls a familiar voice, and Yixing turns just in time to catch Junmyeon. Junmyeon holds him close for a second before he backs up, worried eyes scanning him up and down and frantic hands running down the sides of his face, “Are you okay?! What happened?! Are you–”

“Junmyeon,” Minseok scoffs, “stop acting like that. You’re going to make him think it’s more dangerous than it actually was– ah, shit.” There’s suddenly blood on Minseok’s hand and Yixing realizes all of the scratches on his face have started to bead in liquid. Minseok wipes his hand on his pants profusely.

_“There are also more important matters to attend to,”_ A feminine voice that never fails to make him flinch interjects. “Such as Agent Xiumin’s injuries. Agent Lay is panicked, but he is fine. In fact, Agent Lay should be using his ability to help, if I am not mistaken…”

Junmyeon gets very red and Yixing tries to salvage the only moments of respect he had and Minseok gives them a look while trying to get rid of the blood and RF continues in an annoyed tone:

“And I am never mistaken. _AKA,_ go heal him. Right now.”

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

The rest of EXO’s – now extended – break is spent trying to use a power he has never performed successfully. He sits on a flat plateau with Jongin and Minseok in front of him, the both of them staring at him like he’s supposed to actually do something and him staring at them like _you should know I’m not capable of this._ Junmyeon is beside him and Jongdae is constantly moving around Minseok and the rest are somewhere nearby.

To layer onto the difficulty, there’s also the aftershock of everything. Yixing’s chest is tight with anxiety despite Minseok not moving a muscle, in fact, he’s been with his eyes shut tight and body tense this whole time, Yixing worries he’ll suddenly bring up what they were talking about. Fortunately, Jongdae isn’t a pressure and puts Minseok’s despondency on the cuts all over the side of his face, mumbling so much that even if Minseok wanted to tell them all how Yixing’s crazy he’d have to get Jongdae to shut up first. It’s the most nerve-wracking thing when Yixing has no control over it whatsoever. Does Jongdae already know, anyway? Did Baekhyun tell him?

For obvious reasons (“Try it on me and I’ll crush the walls in on you until you’re a bloody pulp.”), Yixing has never had the opportunity to test his power on human beings. This is where Yixing critiques Kyungsoo’s methods, because although he gives perfect explanations and provides a diversity of different things to extract nutrients from, humans, what he’d _actually_ be using his power on, have never been involved. Though most of the time it was the schedules to blame. And the blatant denial received the few occasions they tried to get volunteers.

It’s not too much of a difference, as Yixing is still taking things, but what he has to mind is the sources and targets being conscious and able to move and _far_ more complicated than any kind of plant. Additionally, he has never actually successfully healed anything before. He has only reached the extent of that beginning tingling, oh my god it’s working!, and then nothing, substance pouring out of his hands. Additionally², he hasn’t really practiced in about a month.

“So, this might sting a bit, Jongin,” Is all Yixing says, because if he explains how it works he’ll also have to explain how he can’t do it. He doubts anyone sitting here cares about the science, anyways.

Yixing brings his left, his strongest, hand to Jongin’s right cheek, corresponding to where the largest cut on Minseok is. He doesn’t know what exactly he’s supposed to be taking out, but neither has he all the things he has practiced on; it just figures it out itself. Humans are no different except that they might scream, he reassures himself. Maybe he’s a little rusty because of the aforementioned not practicing for a month because _RF’s evil what– oh wait I have a job now too what,_ so it’ll take a bit longer, but that will just improve the retrieval strength. So now, Yixing, focus, and the feeling will come.

_“Ow!”_ Jongin yelps in sync to a tingle in Yixing’s hand (so it really _does_ hurt?). He has it. He ignores him as he slowly turns to Minseok, now focusing a hand to his cheek. He positions it as if he’s taking, but tries to focus on expelling instead. His fingers flex outwards, palm completely flat. _In, in, in, in._ When the sensation returns, his spirit suddenly boosts, because he’s got it!(?)

Then, of course, he feels something slimy and he turns over his hand. Blood is splayed all over his palm, slowly leaking out from the cracks of his hands onto the ground.

_“Yixing,”_ Junmyeon’s hands are around his arm as he worriedly inspects his hand. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s not my blood, don’t worry.” Yixing suddenly realizes how much vampires would like him. Given that vampires exist. Maybe vampires could help them destroy RF, or whatever they’re going to do when all of the people sitting here plus more know about everything.

“What about him?” Jongdae lightly kicks Junmyeon in the chest, gesturing to Minseok, _“He’s_ the one hurt, here.”

“Me too.” Jongin pouts as he presses a hand to his cheek.

Junmyeon slowly detaches himself from Yixing as he lets out an awkward chuckle, not commenting on the matter.

“You see, Yi–” Jongdae pauses when Jongin lets out another yelp as Yixing takes more from him, “–xing, Junmyeon’s babying you, like he does everyone, at the smallest things. You should’ve seen that time Chanyeol got a concussion.”

Jongin’s pain immediately turns into a laugh. He mimics in a high-pitched voice, _“‘Oh, Yeol, how many fingers am I holding up? Are you feeling well? What’s one plus one? Do you need me to stay with you tonight? Need earplugs? Water? Can I get you anything, please, tell me–’”_

“Hush,” Junmyeon’s smiling at the ground and all red and Yixing immediately loses grip of all the nutrients he had. Luckily, only he knows how that happened so he doesn’t get teased. He goes back to Jongin, who squeezes his eyes shut in preparation.

“Yeah, he’s like that,” Jongdae points to Jongin, “so you can only imagine him the time Jongin lost his leg.”

“Jongin _what?”_ Yixing loses all the blood again and maybe conversation isn’t the best for his power. He yawns, retrying.

“Oh!” Jongin beams as if losing a leg is _awesome!_ “So this one time we were trying to, like, go through this temple that had a bunch of traps, and I forget what I did but then a big saw cut through my thigh and my leg literally almost came off if it wasn’t for the alien queen on the asteroid nearby! Here, wanna see the–”

_“No!”_ Comes in unison of Junmyeon and Jongdae, and Jongin removes his hands from the hem of his pants and sits back down. Yixing smiles at the whole situation, returning to Jongin’s face. Minseok’s eyes are still closed. 

“Jonginnie has two powers,” Junmyeon chuckles, “one’s teleportation and the other’s not dying. No matter how much he’s mutilated.”

“Minseokie-hyung hates going on missions with me~” Jongin leans into Minseok whose cheek leans into Yixing’s hand and then, he realizes, the connection becomes stronger, despite now _two_ other people’s blood being on his hands. Minseok leans away and Yixing uses his other hand to push him back. “His scaredy-cats always come out around me. Like I’m gonna suddenly bleed or puke all over him.”

“It’s a _phobia,_ not a ‘scaredy-cat.’” Minseok’s eyes open as he snaps and that’s when Yixing loses the blood. It’s the first time he’s spoken and despite the sudden hostility, he quickly reverts to his idle state. Jongdae, however, narrows his eyes scrutinously at Jongin, wrapping a protective arm around Minseok’s shoulders. Yixing can feel the tension.

Junmyeon interjects softly, “Minseokie-hyung can’t control his kind of scaredy-cats, Jongin. I’ve told you this before.”

“But he doesn’t give me hugs at _all_ anymore. He used to. And he’s _always_ had the scaredy-cats.” Yixing has given up on trying to take from Jongin and just sits there in defeat. He inspects Minseok’s cheek, seeing no visible progress despite the good second he had channeled into his cheek. He sighs, figuring he should at least do _something_ useful and taking out a wipe from the box Kyungsoo had given him to clean the blood.

Unfortunately, Jongdae picks up on this. “Yixing-hyung, what are you doing?”

“Cleaning it.” He states, putting his other hand on Minseok’s other cheek so he stops leaning away.

“But you didn’t do any healing…?” Inevitably comes, and then he’s looked at by all of the people who can use their power (Everyone but Zhang Yixing).

“I know. I still can’t use my power.” He states flatly. When the wipe is soaked with blood, he discards it into the waste section of the box and takes out another one from the not-waste section. It’s been long enough for the blood to run down Minseok’s jaw and neck, but it’s mostly dry so it’s not a very messy job.

_“Still?”_ Jongin says.

“Haven’t you been working on it at all?” Jongdae asks in a way that suggests he’s been lazy and hasn’t. (Not that it isn’t true, but there have also been other reasons– even if most of those reasons simplify down to he doesn’t want to try).

“I have.” The wipes leave excess fluid so Yixing takes a cloth to dry his face. Minseok visibly eases.

“At the progress meeting didn’t you only have like, what, nine hours? For a _month?_ You’re supposed to be doing that shit at least an hour a day, dude.” 

“An hour a day when this guy,” Yixing pokes Minseok in the cheek where there isn’t a scratch, “occupies me for more than half of it? I need to sleep and eat too.”

“It’s called _making time.”_

_It’s called shut the fuck up,_ Yixing is about to unintelligently resort to replying when Junmyeon comes in.

“I think healing would be a rather hard power, too…” When everyone looks to him he says, “Be-because it’s more abstract, you know. Like time travel.” There’s a bit of an uncomfortable silence, such as a pause, but it continues quickly.

“You’re just defending him cause you’re his _boyfriend,”_ Jongin teases in a sing-song voice.

“Yeah. We see right through you.” Jongdae squints as if he is struggling to see right through him.

“No– that’s not true.” Junmyeon refutes. He’s scoffed at so he then continues with, “I’m just being fair! In fact, I do think he could put a little more time into it.” Yixing isn’t particularly offended because A) he loves Junmyeon, B) Junmyeon is clearly being peer pressured, C) he kind of agrees, and D) he understands Junmyeon doesn’t know the full extent of what his time has been occupied by. “But I genuinely do think healing is a hard power.”

“Yeah, but it’s been like two months and he can’t do jack shit.” Yixing doesn’t even try to pretend the comment doesn’t bother him. And Jongdae wonders why he dislikes him.

Yet, at the same time, isn’t he right? Yixing should be more than capable by now. He really is useless, no matter what side he’s on. He’s a burden to RF who doesn’t do his work and defies her and he’s a burden to Kyungsoo who fucks everything up and _continues_ to do so as he tries to fix those fuckups.

“No,” Jongin then comes in his defense, Yixing shakes off the feeling that followed the prior thoughts. “He beat Chanyeol in sparring! Which means he can beat you too, Jongdae.”

Jongdae narrows his eyes at Jongin, “That’s Jongdae- _h_ _yung_ to you.”

“Yixing can beat you in a fight, Jongdae _-h_ _yung.”_ Jongin corrects sweetly. “Where you can’t use powers. _And_ he’s the best at Exokart.”

Jongdae's face falls at the second one. “Come on, don’t be rude now.”

“But you’re being rude to Yixing-hyung.” Yixing suddenly has a new respect for Jongin. Even if he’s a little aloof, he’s one of the people here with actual rationality. Go Jongin! “And he’s _your_ elder, too. Talk about a hypocrite.”

“Yah,” Jongdae swings to hit him, but just in time Junmyeon inserts himself in the interaction and catches his arm.

“Let’s not–“

_“Ha ha!”_ Jongin sticks his tongue out. This prompts Jongdae to full on stand up, wrenching himself out of Junmyeon’s grip and then chasing after the teleporter. Which is as hard as it sounds.

It’s not long (three seconds maybe) before Minseok snaps out of whatever trance he was in and gets up too, assisting Jongdae in casting an ice cube around Jongin, allowing the two to get ahold of him before it melts and then Minseok grabs one ear with a blue hand and Jongdae grabs the other with something electric and Jongin yelps for them to stop and when they don’t stop he starts to cry and tries to teleport away but it ultimately just brings all three of them and a frantic Junmyeon chases the moving catastrophe trying to trap them in water to stop them and that’s when Yixing just stops paying attention and you know what? Fuck powers.

_“AGENTS!_ Stop fighting immediately. You are acting like _children_. If this continues, you will be punished. If you are starting to quarrel amongst yourselves, it seems the ordeal is taken care of. Continue north at _once.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this had gone equally as well... almost makes me afraid for the next one.
> 
> Thanks for reading and supporting! <3


	48. The Power of a Different Kind of P

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing... well...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW/SPOILER:
> 
> 18+

“Finally, some alone time!”

 **YIXING TAKES** a shaky breath. He tells himself it’s because he’s cold.

As they continued to walk, Yixing avoided Minseok and Baekhyun and kept in step with Junmyeon. Although he couldn’t exactly discuss anything, he could zone out looking at his pretty face and think about how pretty he is and then also the other things like planning out what he’s going to say to him. At first, he wasn’t too worried about being believed, but the reactions of Minseok and Baekhyun have shattered his 100% assurance. Junmyeon loves and trusts him, he knows it, but just how far is that going to go? Yixing had thought Baekhyun trusted him. Will the superficiality of what he thought was real again reveal its true self in a furrowed brow, narrowed eyes, deep frown, Yixing, are you feeling alright? Maybe. And maybe it’s been here the whole time, maybe he’s just been so stupid and desperate as to cling to these space boys as if they return an ounce of his feelings back.

But no, not Junmyeon, he’s different... right?

It isn’t exactly under the excuse of ‘can we talk’, something that would’ve aided entering a more serious mood, but it was rather Junmyeon’s suggestion. _Hey, want to go search that cave, me and you?_ He had asked after arriving at ‘Base 2’, where they would be searching and sleeping. Yixing, obviously, accepted, and now here they are, somewhere underground but still able to see the light of the giant planet, half searching for SE_1 and half messing around (because messing around _definitely_ will help get serious). As the day progressed, it had begun to get colder, especially when Yixing followed Junmyeon down into the caves. He finally buttoned all the buttons and zips up his jacket which made way more of a difference than it should.

“Yeah,” He stares when the light beams in through a hole, illuminating Junmyeon, his hair, smile. Yixing is entranced for a second but then his obligation scolds him. _You have to tell him. Now!_

“Is something wrong?” Junmyeon goes soft as he approaches, exiting the illumination and placing his hands on Yixing’s shoulders.

This. This is it! The perfect opportunity to get serious!

“No,” Yixing breaks into a smile, lightly shoving him off. “Stop being so caring. Or else.”

But why is it so hard?

“It’s just my nature.” Junmyeon shrugs while grinning. He’s in a good mood. Yixing would hate to ruin that mood. “I’m _programmed~” Like RF. See? It’s Randomness telling you to tell him._ “And it’s not my fault I can never tell what you’re thinking.”

“That sounds like it is exactly your fault.” He replies. Junmyeon’s face stills in realization, contemplation, and then his eyes light up when he finds a rephrasal.

“It’s not my fault you’re so hard to read.” When Yixing says nothing, he beams, “Hah, gotcha!” and skips ahead, finding a sudden interest in the rocks. In case of the rocks not being rocks, however, both of them have a weapon in the ready, Yixing’s knife and Junmyeon’s gun but not quite a gun, though Junmyeon had assured him that he can easily crush something with extreme water pressure when Yixing wasn’t so sure about following him into the cave. 

Yixing can’t help the smile spreading his lips, the overwhelming fondness glittering in his chest. He watches his boyfriend, who is currently inspecting something around a corner. For some reason, the privacy has made Junmyeon all happy and giggly, frolicking around the cave without a care in the universe. This makes it even harder. But he has to do it.

“But, Junmyeon,” Junmyeon turns at the name and tilts his head. “There is one thing…”

He trails off as Junmyeon skips back over to him, hands on his shoulders and leaning forward. “Yeah?” There’s a bright smile and his eyes sparkle and everything about him dazzles.

Yixing looks down so he doesn’t have to face such happiness when talking about its antithesis. “So, there’s a… this…”

He gets lost in the proximity. Junmyeon’s soft jaw, plump lips pouted slightly as if he shares every single one of his worries, the mic on his cheek with the knob up high, high, the high cheekbones over; it seems he had noticed him looking down and one of his hands comes off his shoulder to grab Yixing’s hand and make a heart.

“…I love you.” Yixing looks back up, a smile but a bit guilty, butterflies in his stomach but a bit nauseous.

He gives up and decides that right now, telling Junmyeon isn’t necessary. They are in no imminent danger. He can wait, salvage these last bits of forgetting, Junmyeon, his escape, the Junmyeon he’s absolutely positive trusts and loves him, and just enjoy himself right here, right now. He will tell him before they exit the cave.

Yixing is pretty sure he had said he loves him too, but now Junmyeon’s pulling him to the spot he had been oogling at just a minute ago.

It’s a corner that opens up into a large sphere-shaped cave, the roof open, which lets pale light shine into the area. He notices that it now seems darker, sky no longer given a mauve shade but just the sparkles against the black backdrop. He also notices that, just in this area, there’s snow. It makes sense, since it is noticeably colder here. On the sides of the sphere are two wide ledges that wind around the middle, other openings of other caves lining the walls. In the center where the snow lies is mostly flat, but there are some small islands of rocks erected. He’d say it’s about a ten-foot fall from one of the ledges down into the middle.

Junmyeon once again has this dreamy look in his eyes as he scopes the area. Yixing doesn’t blame him; the place, though not huge and grand, is very beautiful. The starlight, snow, and smooth yet artistic nature of the land is quite aesthetically pleasing.

Yet, he still goes, in monotone, _“Wow._ Pretty setting.” Maybe it’s because sappy Junmyeon’s melting over some vista, or maybe it’s because Yixing wants to make him laugh. Or, maybe _maybe_ it’s because, once again, Junmyeon is prettier than whatever they are looking at. 

Yixing laughs at Junmyeon’s indignant expression, which elicits an array of diminutive punches to the arm. This makes him laugh even harder, and Junmyeon’s punches end up in a sort of violent hug.

“You just don’t appreciate beauty.” Junmyeon huffs, pushing away and crossing his arms.

He’s about to say he disagrees, because he had just called it ‘pretty’ with his very expressive ‘wow’, but Yixing suddenly gets a better idea.

“Um, I appreciate you.” 

What a banger! Look, look at the way he’s smiling at the ground. Way to go, Yixing!

“So I _do_ appreciate beauty, thank you very much,” He says before heading to the left ledge because, again, right is overrated. He also really wants to step on the snow to see what kind of crunch it makes and left is where the nearest snow is.

“Wait!” Yixing is obstructed by two arms around his waist. Junmyeon pulls him back, then stepping in front of him. At his confused look, he explains:

“We should probably check if it’s actually snow. The planet’s unexplored, remember?”

“Oh, right.” Yixing nods. He’s about to ask how they exactly are to do that, but Junmyeon has it covered. Like a wizard, he points his hands towards some of the substance near his feet. Not long after he does that Yixing sees the snow turn clearer and liquefy into water. Junmyeon lifts the particles, quickly shaping them into a little heart before shooting it off towards the middle of the cave.

“Yep, it’s snow.” He confirms, not saying anything about the figure.

“I saw that.” Yixing follows him up the left side. Junmyeon still says nothing, but he can catch a small glimpse of a smile. The snow makes the soft freshly-fallen noise, something mellow he wouldn’t define as a _crunch._

Although they do have a rather far drop below the ledge, the path is so wide that he doesn’t have to be nervous about anything. He’d estimate that five people could walk side by side. The complete flatness of the surface only makes it easier to trek. Junmyeon leads him to a wide section towards the center. It juts out like a cliff into where the arbitrary landforms of the roof don’t cover it, letting them bask in the light. There is a little bit of snow, but nowhere near as much as the area below has.

Here Junmyeon sits down. Luckily it is not at the edge so Yixing can sit next to him without feeling the least bit of _what if I fall?_ Even if it’s only about a ten-foot drop, Randomness is bound to have him land on his ankle or wrist or neck or something. That exacerbated by his low pain tolerance. 

“This is perfect.” Junmyeon says. He’s talking about a scene where he’s sitting next to his boyfriend, hand interlocked with his as they stargaze. Little does he know that it’s flawed: because, again, his boyfriend doesn’t care about the stars.

 _“Yeah,”_ Yixing agrees, eyes trailing across Junmyeon’s cheek. They’ve done this before, yet it’s just as sweet as the first time. Maybe it doesn’t wear out, this feeling. Why can’t he stay like this forever?

The pressure of telling him comes again, because this is a comforting setting, they’re sat, something fit for talking, but suddenly, something distracting from the notion lands on Junmyeon’s cheekbone. A white fleck from the sky dissolves into a clear drop of condensation. Yixing looks up.

It’s snowing.

It’s light, far spread particles drifting their way into the scene. They land and melt on pale skin, dot the ground. Only now do their eyes meet. What was he thinking about again?

“First snow.” The sappy romantic says, melting the frozen pragmatist. Even if it clearly isn’t, because A) the _other snow there_ and B) the _other snow there_ having the freshly-laid sound, which means it probably snowed like ten minutes ago, it doesn’t matter. It’s only two soft spoken words and a glint to his eyes and Yixing finds himself falling for Junmyeon all over again. As if they haven’t been dating. It’s a curse. It’s terrible. Why does this have to happen to him?

Yet, at the same time, it gives him a drive. Junmyeon is right. Right now, everything is perfect. The setting practically prompts him: the beauty, romance, solitude. Not to do what he’s forgotten about, but to solidify their love. In the physical form. The form he’s been thinking about ever since Junmyeon said he liked him back. He suddenly has the bravery he needs.

He sits up and Wait, no. No he doesn’t.

 _Okay, okay,_ Yixing’s conscience returns to his mind with a broom, whacking away all of the romantic incentives and sparkles. _Reason._ He wants to kiss Junmyeon. He’s pretty sure the feeling is mutual: he isn’t looking at his lips or anything, like Baekhyun– will he and Baekhyun ever be friends again?– had said, but he is staring at him in this very loving way. They are close, too, maybe about a foot’s distance between their faces. Yixing should lean right, right? That’s what he said? Right? Wait, but what if Junmyeon doesn’t think they are going to kiss? Junmyeon needs to be informed, because Yixing can’t do it himself because he doesn’t know _how_ to kiss. So he needs to make sure he knows. But how? What can Yixing possibly elicit from this ambiguity?

Nothing!

“Can I…” He begins on instinct, then realizing this is what he’s not supposed to do. Oh my god! _The One Thing He’s NOT Supposed To Do!_ But there is no going back now. He already started his sentence. “–Kiss you?”

And why is he _asking?_ Is he someone who cannot assert their own dominance? Okay, maybe. But Junmyeon isn’t supposed to know that! 

Junmyeon lets out a mirthful breath, teetering just on the edge of a chuckle. 

“Yes.” Is the green light. But it’s more of a green light where the drivers behind are giving in the form of a loud beep, because the light was already fucking green Yixing just _kiss him!_

It takes everything he has to stifle awkward ramblings and lean forward. At first, he does it a bit too fast, almost jerking forward. So, he slows down, enclosing the distance between their faces. He leans right, but perhaps it’s too much to the right. So he straightens his face a little. He doesn’t know what to do with his hands, but he begins to get so off balance that one, the one holding Junmyeon’s, readjusts to keep him steady. Then–

Oh. He’s taking too long. Fuck!

This manifests in how Junmyeon’s lips, which Yixing’s eyes have been fixated on for the span of thirty seconds (since he has asked to kiss him), twitch. They bend into a slight frown, and that’s when Yixing pulls all the way back. Heck, he wasn’t even supposed to have his eyes open, either!

Yixing’s face feels like it’s going to burn off. Yes, there is losing an intellectual argument against the strongest crush you’ve ever had. But there’s nothing – absolutely _nothing_ – as embarrassing as fucking up your first kiss with being awkward and shy. And also having your first kiss being that _very same_ strongest crush you’ve ever had that you also lost an intellectual argument against. 

Oh, god, the way he’s looking at him! It’s confusion, disappointment, a little bit of pity. For the millionth time Yixing wishes he had Jongin’s power. He wants to disappear right now.

But he can't. So, the next best thing comes: that rambling from a couple paragraphs ago.

 _“Okay,_ um,” Yixing’s suddenly glad he’s not holding Junmyeon’s hand anymore. He knows his hands are all clammy. He starts to feel too hot. He unzips his jacket. At the lack of response (even if he hadn’t said anything to respond _to),_ his exhausted impulse is to let out an awkward chuckle, which only brings further embarrassment when the laughter remains one sided. 

“So, you see,” This is _bad._ This is _so bad._ He just _leaned in_ and then _leaned back out_ and got all sweaty. “There’s just a slight, thing. And that’s me not knowing how to kiss. I have never kissed anyone– and like, I really like you so I want it to be good, but I genuinely don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Like, even, I– well, no, I just… Can you say something? This is really awkward. And embarrassing.” Junmyeon doesn’t say anything. “God, I’m so sorry. You don’t–“

Instead, he kisses him.

As in, mid-sentence, Yixing’s partially open mouth is closed by two lips, something soft, something exotic. It seems like forever that the setting freezes, Yixing closing his eyes and now breathing through his nose, and then everything combusts. Though it’s his lips, something deep within his chest explodes, sending confetti all around. It tangles with the butterflies in his stomach, creating the perfect balance of excitement and apprehension. 

If he had thought Baekhyun’s kiss was good, then Junmyeon’s is pure euphoria. The liking him makes _that_ much of a difference, making Yixing blush but also shiver and freeze but also melt and all of these oxymorons that don’t make sense yet they’re happening right here, right now. So strongly such that he has to readjust his hand again behind him because Junmyeon’s leaning forward and there’s more pressure and more everything.

And that’s when he realizes that for this whole time, the whole of five seconds, he hadn’t even needed to know it: _The Flow!_ It was in that he was so focused on the pleasure that he hadn’t paid attention to his lips at all, instead letting Junmyeon do the work, lips naturally mending in the right way, saliva making it easier.

However, now that he confronts _The Flow,_ like a skittish animal, it quickly disappears.

All of the sudden, Yixing feels out of control. The complicity can’t be solved because of the pleasure’s distraction, and he really doesn’t know what happens, he really doesn’t, but the kiss starts to feel awkward. His lips move in ways contradicting to Junmyeon’s, resulting in a weird push or pressure. Then, his lips become stiff, in a sort of half pucker. He feels it. Junmyeon must feel it. But he can’t do anything, there’s too much going on, it’s like he’s stuck. Tongue. Would a tongue solve it? No! No tongue!

Then, his lips become cold.

The separation of Junmyeon’s mouth from his makes a small sound, dropping right into silence as he pulls away. Snow still falls. Everything is still here.

Yixing’s senses return to him and he realizes his lips are indeed puckered. Only _now_ can he soften them. They’re tingling. And moist, he discovers after touching a finger to them. He’s afraid to look up at Junmyeon, to face the humiliation. But he does, fully aware of the shitty kissing he just did, the crimson color of his face. _Flustered virgin_ would be an understatement.

He tries to read his expression, but he doesn’t get much out of it except for that he’s not smiling. Rather, just a neutral face. What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?!

“You…” He’s speaking. Oh no, _he’s speaking!_ “Weren’t kidding…”

_Ouch._

Yixing expected this, it was inevitable, yet it stings so much. Especially for Junmyeon not to lie to him for the sake of his self-worth. That means it was really _that_ bad, for him to just be blunt. He looks so nonplussed, too. How is Yixing supposed to be a good boyfriend if he can’t even _kiss_ him? And how is he supposed to expect himself to be a good boyfriend if he has never kissed anyone in the first place? Why hasn’t he? God, this is so embarrassing. He’s pathetic.

“Sorry– I, I won’t kiss you, then,” He agrees, voice softened as he straightens up. Why does he feel like he’s going to cry? Here, with Junmyeon? The experience, after a respite of unmatchable pleasure, quickly reverted back to its awkwardness, now joined by hurt. He looks in the other direction, focusing on the cave wall far away. Is this going to be a deal breaker for Junmyeon? The sexual part of a relationship isn’t everything, but it definitely matters. Is it not perfect anymore? And he _still_ has to tell him all of that stuff about RF, after this all.

The more seconds silence continues, the more regret Yixing feels and the louder his heartbeat becomes. Can the beetles come and attack them again?

Suddenly, he hears shuffling and _wait_ he wasn’t serious! He whips around back to Junmyeon, who, instead of preparing for attack, simply looks to be standing up. Just as the confusion (and maybe betrayal because is he just going to _walk away?)_ surfaces, however, it turns out that’s actually not what he’s doing. Instead, Junmyeon swings a leg over both of Yixing’s own, positioning himself to straddle him. Yixing’s eyes widen as the bold movement, wondering what the hell this means. There’s a moment of just eye contact, Junmyeon looking down at him, and then he says:

“No, it’s okay. I– I didn’t mean…” He seems a little flustered too. Perhaps he feels bad? Pity shouldn’t have _any_ part in Yixing’s First Kiss, though. “Right now, just let me... try something.”

A hand on Yixing’s chest pushes him down gently. Then, Junmyeon’s face appears above him for a moment. Confused, because what does he mean by _that?,_ Yixing is about to speak up.

But that’s stopped by this strange sensation.

On his neck something lightly presses. When Yixing startles and his breath hitches, they hover for a moment, a warm breath eliciting a shiver. From just that alone, something deep within his stomach starts to stir. Then, Junmyeon continues. Now, he’s right under his jaw, and Yixing can’t figure out what he’s trying to do because a sudden wave of something interrupts it. He gets a chill down his spine but it’s warm. He tries to process the feeling, how good it is, then what it is, but Junmyeon keeps kissing him, so Yixing only receives the pleasure whilst everything else fogs. It’s like he’s Asleep but Aware of Being Asleep.

It only intensifies. Yixing tries, truly tries, to get some sort of grip, but he’s too exhausted and weak and ends up losing himself in the sensation. He feels every single movement Junmyeon’s lips make. They echo throughout his body, sending those waves of golden and bliss despite them not actually touching lips. He starts to breathe faster because his heart races and he’s practically drowning in the feeling. As he moves down his neck, leftover saliva makes contact with the cold air and stings. Junmyeon readjusts himself, and when this happens Yixing becomes _very_ aware of his position. Their pelvises are touching, and as Junmyeon works his way down his neck, he’s moving, shifting. He feels himself heat up.

So _this_ is what Junmyeon had meant. And Yixing agrees. Thousand percent.

Suddenly, it’s hard to stay still, so he lifts a hand up, bringing it to the small of Junmyeon’s back. He has the incentive to slide it lower, to grab his ass, but he uses the last of his self-control to refrain, keeping his fingers to the hem of his pants at the furthest. Junmyeon reciprocates the action, hands going up into Yixing’s hair, the relaxing sensation battling with the ones of pleasure, of drive, of lust.

There’s then a sudden prick. It’s good, though, and shoots something through Yixing that contributes to down low. Junmyeon nibbles at his neck, thumbs still circling in his hair. It’s when he gets to a certain spot that it suddenly feels _very_ good. The next breath let out tails with a vocal.

Junmyeon stops. It’s so hot, how his lips lift to Yixing’s ear, warm breath on his tingling neck.

“There?” He purrs, hand sliding down to Yixing’s cheek, thumb grazing his lips. Yixing tries to make eye contact, but finds himself shying away for some reason. It’s completely irrational because it’s obvious the both of them know Junmyeon’s got him completely hot and bothered, yet he still does it. 

_“Yes,”_ His answer comes out in something needy, making his crotch tingle. Maybe this whole bottom thing is for him. (He’s not particularly surprised at that– But Junmyeon? A _top?)_

Then, Junmyeon’s back down to the spot, near his collarbone. As he plants soft kisses, he also fiddles with Yixing’s shirt, undoing the first few buttons. He exponentially becomes rougher, and since _when_ was he such a good kisser? Yixing finds himself barely suppressing moans under sharp breaths, an erection pushing against the confines of his pants. How fast he got hard suddenly reminds him of the _last_ time he got hard and the last time he actually acted upon it and, god, _when_ was that? A week ago? Two? He usually goes at it every day… Is Junmyeon really that good of a kisser or is Yixing just sexually stunted? Well, either way, he’s enjoying this.

Junmyeon’s lips come to a halt when he seems to be having difficulty with the shirt. The overwhelming pleasure stops and with enough moments of inaction Yixing is able to prop himself up on an elbow to find that he has taken something out of his jacket pocket.

“You…” Junmyeon’s small smile fails to hide excitement in his voice as he stares at the golden sheep. “You still have…”

“Put it back. I don’t want to lose it.” Yixing’s voice comes out rough, sentence terse, but he grins dazedly and the message is tacit.

“God, I love you, I really do.” For some reason it makes Junmyeon _really_ happy that Yixing still keeps the inanimate object close to him. He stares at it for a couple more seconds, smiling to himself as he puts it away securely. He then focuses back on the animate object, putting a hand beside Yixing’s head and leaning over him. He brushes a piece of hair off of his forehead.

“I love you. You’re beautiful.” He says about Yixing whose hair is mussed and lips and neck are shiny with saliva and face has that dazed I’m-about-to-pass-out look (is he able to see what Yixing saw in the mirror before the mission?). Junmyeon’s eyes come off him for a second to scope out where they came from. When he looks back his face contorts in worry. Yixing’s stomach flips.

“This– but this isn’t… exactly… mission etiquette…”

 _N_ _o._ He is _not_ going back on this now.

“I don’t care.” Yixing refutes, reaching up to cup his cheeks and make sure they’re looking eye to eye so he can get the message through that, “No one will come down here. We’ve gone far. We’re fine. Please continue. Seriously. Keep going. Please.”

“Well– yeah, _alright,”_ Any worry disappears into a grin and Junmyeon pushes his hands away, settling back down onto him.

He drags a finger down Yixing’s chest, getting at the fourth button. “I… I want to make you feel good, Yixing.” He can’t ignore the way this sentence does things, “What’s best?”

 _What’s best_ would be those lips around him, but Yixing’s not so sure about taking his dick out in a maybe hostile alien infested cave on a foreign planet. But he knows if Junmyeon goes back to kissing him his mind will change within the minute, so he just says:

“You.”

Junmyeon breaks into a mirthful breath, hand still opening his shirt. “I’ll just continue and you tell me if you like something, okay?” 

He says it in a way so gentle that’d suggest he was taking care of a sick person. It’s funny, but entranced Yixing can’t bring himself to laugh and just lets out a deep _“Mhm,”_ as he stares at him. Looks into the face of how lucky he is.

It returns to what it was, though now there’s an element even more intense. It powers Junmyeon and his kisses and god, maybe Yixing should carry around that little guy more. If he could talk to the sheep right now, the Yixing on Earth, he’d be saying something like: _hah, so maybe my suffering isn’t for nothing after all._ Earth Yixing couldn’t even imagine something like this: writhing under another the lips and hands of a person who loves him with all of their heart and nothing less returned. Earth Yixing never knew such euphoria.

The vision of confronting his past self is eradicated when one of Junmyeon’s hands comes down from his hair, sneaking into his shirt and finding a nipple, and Yixing completely loses it. He didn’t expect it to feel good, he has experimented with it in his past with little results, but for some reason when it’s another person touching it, twisting it, pinching it, it suddenly becomes a sensitive bud of pleasure.

“Is that good?” Junmyeon comes up to ask when Yixing gives up silence and lets out a moan. Contrary to the awkward squeak he expected, it's something lewd and sensual and makes him even harder. He had thought it would be scary, letting himself go like this in front of another person, but he's fantasized about situations like this with this specific person so much it's almost second-nature. (Or maybe he's just horny and then when he's not he'll never want to look Junmyeon in the face again, but who cares right now he's horny).

 _“Yes,_ very. Did not expect that but– but keep going.” 

On one particularly hard twist, Yixing also gives up on restraining his hands and gives Junmyeon’s ass a squeeze. It’s firm, muscular, as he expected. It elicits a surprised noise from the other that only makes Yixing hornier, and never mind: he’s going to take his dick out in a maybe hostile alien infested cave on a foreign planet. He doesn’t know how much longer he can wait.

Junmyeon’s kisses start to trail lower and Yixing becomes – more – excited. He’s going to his nipples. How good that’s going to feel. How he’ll have his tongue around one, fingers on the other. When will he go lower? Brush against his hard-on, sending the ultimate wave of lust through him. Will he palm him through his pants? Reach in and grab him? Can he put his lips there, too? Please? He’s not past begging. Are they going to have sex? Again, he’s not past begging. Not right now. Horny Yixing has taken over.

All of the sudden, it stops again.

Just before his tongue makes contact with his chest, Junmyeon picks his head up. His other hand stops as well, coming off to support himself as he sits up. Yixing struggles to come down from the clouds, trying to figure out why he stopped but also weakly groping for his hand, to put it back, to continue.

 _“Why’d you stop? Come back… SE_1’s in here, just… touch…”_ Junmyeon takes the desperate grab, but his hand doesn’t budge when Yixing tries to move it to his crotch (he momentarily reflects on how he just said SE_1’s in his _pants,_ but he’s too horny to be embarrassed). He’s focused on something far away.

Before he knows it, Junmyeon’s shouting. “OKAY! WE’RE COMING!”

Yixing flinches at the noise, hands shooting up to his ears as he grits his teeth. Junmyeon finally focuses back to him, eyes wide. “Crap, sorry, that was loud.”

“Ye–“ Yixing clears his throat, _“Yeah.”_ Everything in his body is tingling and down low he’s _aching_ with desire. He’s been so exhausted that he hasn’t had the motive to masturbate in like a week or two, but now, here, his senses are in overdrive. Not even the most passionate of 2AM jerk-offs can match to how much his body just _needs_ sex. Or masturbation. Or Junmyeon masturbating for him. Fucking _something!_

“Um,” But Yixing gets a feeling that’s not going to be happening. “I don’t know if you heard, but Jongdae called to us. Everyone’s back at the base. We should get going.”

 _“What?_ Seriously? No.” Yixing shakes his head, “No, it’s fine. There’s more time…. We can keep going, we should keep going, keep going, Junmyeon, Junmyeonnie… please…” The longer he stares at Junmyeon who does not keep going the more hope he loses.

Everything darkens as it dawns upon Yixing that he’s not going to have sex, let alone get touched. He takes a moment to look up at the sky, the stars, the universe, all the pretty colors.

_Please. Sex. Or just something. I’m not asking for a lot._

Five seconds pass and nothing happens.

 _Fine. See if I ever do anything good ever again,_ he reluctantly lifts himself up by his elbows and then his hands. Consequently, Junmyeon sits back onto his lap. A sharp pain elicits as he sits _directly_ onto his erection. Obviously, Junmyeon realizes what it is, as his expression changes to something flustered. Yet, he just stares at him dumbly.

“Well– well _get off!”_ Yixing stammers, scooting back to force him away. Junmyeon snaps to it and scrambles up, offering a hand.

“Yixing, I’m sorry–“

“No. It’s _fine.”_ Yixing gives a petty tone as he ignores his hand, standing up himself. “It’s just that every single nerve in my body thought we were going to have sex or something. I’m hard as fuck and it fucking hurts but _no._ It’s _fine_. I'm _fine._ _Really.”_ Now how the hell is he supposed to un-arouse himself?! With Junmyeon still here?! He gets the incentive to go finish the job around the corner to spite him but then that’d just make him feel worse because it’s not Junmyeon, but would that feeling be worse than the feeling right now of this repressed _need?_

A couple moments of silence and Yixing grumbles a quiet, “Love you.”

Junmyeon bursts out into laughter, and Yixing continues to be grumpy until Junmyeon nears him for some kind of contact and he backs away, hands up.

“Get the _hell_ away from me.” When Junmyeon’s face falls, Yixing lets it sink in for a second or two to get justice for himself before he explains, “I need to get rid of this.” He looks straight down and hopes Junmyeon gets the memo.

“But I just wanted a kiss.”

Yixing looks back up and narrows his eyes. “Are you even aware of how attractive you are?” When Junmyeon says nothing he _tsk_ s, “Exactly. You have no idea how hard this is for me right now. And I’m not talking just mentally.” 

“I’m sorry, really.” Junmyeon half says half laughs, “We’ll do it when we get back from the mission. It’ll be more comfortable. We’ll have a better time.”

Better? Something _better_ than this?

“Okay…” Yixing’s sour mood is still not gone, but the promise of sex on the ship pacifies him. Where they can have something soft to lay on. Where they can be as loud as they want. Where there isn’t the anxiety of someone else possibly seeing. God, Jongdae… what a cockblock. Yixing’s not going to forgive him for this. _Ever._

As Junmyeon stretches, Yixing looks him up and down. While he’s sure he himself looks like a complete hot mess, Junmyeon looks the exact same as he had coming here. Maybe his lips are a little swollen, but no one could tell he’d just been through a full blown makeout session.

“Are you even hard?” Yixing asks as he buttons back up his shirt, giving his nipple a final sorrowful look before bringing together the fabric. He straightens the collars of both the shirt and the jacket. He then tries to re-tuck in his shirt, but ends up taking off his belt and adjusting his pants because he needs to have the shirt perfectly tucked into them or he’ll go crazy but this is all very hard to work around an erection especially one that’s being brushed against in the process.

Meanwhile Junmyeon re-parts his hair.

“Yeah, mostly,” When Yixing’s eyes immediately dart to his crotch, two hands obscure it. After giving Junmyeon a _seriously?_ look, he sheepishly uncovers it, giving view of a definite print against his pants. How big is he? Yixing wonders. He tries to remember a shower encounter but nothing recalls.

“And remember I wasn’t even the one being kissed.” Junmyeon adds.

That’s relieving. That means the feeling is mutual. That although Yixing is useless in kissing, he still got Junmyeon up. Also, speaking of kissing,

“Where’d you learn to kiss like that?” He asks as he takes his eyes off Junmyeon and finds the right hole in his belt. “Like, if you couldn’t tell, it felt really good.”

Junmyeon chuckles, “Practice. It’s like almost anything: just do it a lot and you’ll get better.”

“Oh, okay.” That doesn’t sound too bad, actually. “So I hate to break this to you, but if you want me to do _that,”_ Yixing points to the spot in the ground where the snow is slightly indented. A make-out angel. “Then I am going to need a _lot_ of practice.”

“I don’t mind.” Junmyeon smiles, “Also, I’m really sorry for saying that. That you weren’t good at kissing. I was just surprised at the kiss in the first place. I mean, I’ve been waiting, but, I just, didn’t think right then…”

“Junmyeon,” Yixing laughs, “you can just say I suck at kissing. It’s alright. It’s the truth. I know. I was just embarrassed in the moment, but I really don’t mind. As long as you’ll help me get better. That’d be cool.”

“Yeah!” Junmyeon suddenly clears his throat and repeats it nonchalantly like in the cartoons, “I mean– _sure._ Yeah. No problemo… But sorry for embarrassing you, I didn’t mean–”

“Shut up.” Yixing finally gets his shirt like he wants it, “Stop apologizing. You didn’t do anything. Well, except for acknowledging Jongdae you didn’t do anything.” He narrows his eyes and hopes Junmyeon hears the spite in his voice.

To which he does. And narrows his eyes back. “Would you have _rather_ had him see us?”

“If I could come before I could not care less what he sees us doing.” To the strange look he frowns, “What? Almost everybody partakes in sexual acts. And you can’t tell me you haven’t walked in on Jongdae and Minseok at least once throughout your three years when I have _numerous_ times through my three _months.”_

“Well– yeah, but, like…” Junmyeon looks like he knows what he wants to say, but the longer he stares at Yixing the less he looks like it. Eventually, he shakes his head. “Never mind. You’re right. But we still do have to go.”

“I had given up all hope a couple minutes ago, _don’t worry.”_ Yixing bitches further and Junmyeon frowns.

“I’m sorry… I mean, even if we did, then Jongdae would probably just come over and stop us himself.” Hah, Yixing would like to see him try– wait, actually, no. No he wouldn’t. He’d electrocute the _last_ thing Yixing wants to be electrocuted. “Also, Yixing, I’m sorry about what I said earlier, about your power…”

“What?” Yixing’s lethargic mind switches topics. “Weren’t you defending me?”

“Well, yeah, but I said I thought you could like, put more effort, but like, I know you have so much on–”

“Don’t be sorry.” Yixing narrows his eyes. “Don’t be sorry when you’re telling the truth. I could put more time into it.” He then decides to add, “I’ll make sure to balance out some more power training aside the time we’ll be making out.” Because Junmyeon laughs and then he’s smiling again. Just as Yixing turns and steps to exit the cave (and maybe plot Jongdae’s demise), his arm is grabbed.

“Ah– Xing– let me fix this,” Junmyeon says as he spins him back around, hands going up into his hair. Right. Yixing had completely forgotten about that. He closes his eyes and finds himself smiling, especially when a chaste kiss plants itself on that smile.

“You know,” Yixing remarks, “I never thought you would, like, take a dominant role. Not that I have thought about it that much… Okay, that’s a lie. I have thought about it that much. But you’re a really gentle person.”

“Well, I can bottom, too. But yeah…” Junmyeon nods. “I like actually that better. Even if it’s kind of contradictory to my personality. I don’t know… I guess it’s hot to be so empowered. Especially over someone I find intimidating, like you.”

“You think _I’m_ intimidating? I mean, I get why before, but you _still_ do? After I have cried and been dumb and embarrassed myself and moa– er, did that?” He jabs a thumb back to the cliff. He’ll never forget that cliff. Or planet #1356.

“Maybe. Don’t laugh–! Okay, but you know my secret power now. So I advise you be nice to me.”

“Yes sir,” Yixing says through chuckles, even giving a salute. 

“I’m serious! I’ll start kissing you!” 

“Yep. Got it– hey!” Suddenly, Junmyeon grabs his shoulders, pushing him back into the cave wall. He shuts him up by his lips, silencing him in a brief pleasure before pulling back, teeth tugging on Yixing’s bottom lip. The action pulls him forward, wanting more. Now that he takes notice, Junmyeon tastes weird. Not good, not bad, just weird. Kind of like body odor; something individual. Also does breath spray change the taste or only make the mouth _smell_ better?

“See?” Junmyeon says, and Yixing remains blank-faced, not sure if he’s going to break or not. The more he stares, the more his boyfriend’s stern expression falters.

“Did… did I push you too hard? Is your back alright?”

There we go.

Yixing just laughs. This is much to his discontent, so Junmyeon does the same thing, capturing his lips again for a longer kiss. Although it’s still Yixing not knowing how to kiss, it’s okay this time, because he’s not as nervous. And he’s supposed to be messy; he’s half-laughing, as is Junmyeon. Except that when Junmyeon’s hand fingers his belt Yixing’s suddenly not laughing anymore. It then brushes a bit lower, completely eradicating all the progress he had made. Junmyeon pulls away, grinning devilishly as he continues.

“C’mon! We don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Yixing looks down, sighing harshly. “That’s not fair!”

“Life isn’t fair.” At his look of indignance, Junmyeon sticks out his tongue.

“Fuck you.”

“Not until we get back on the ship. Patience!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol fellas think yixing forgot sumn
> 
> also I have wanted to say for like a while now that I am sosooso thankful for all the support but most specifically the comments. it's absolutely AMAZING that you guys can get invested into this story like I am (and the lengths of some of y'alls comments... I literally make the :O face) and it means a lot :,((( that you're willing to take time out of your day to talk about it. it's really interesting to see other perspectives. I know like story-wise its kinda shitty right now its just exponential suffering but I hope overall reading power is and has been a good experience for you and that it will continue to be so <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
> 
> also haha do u get the title haha


	49. Down From the Clouds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The negligence of an important task quickly catches up to Yixing as the second phase of his and Kyungsoo's plan ensues.

**ARRIVING BACK** to Base 2 fully soft and kind of in a bad mood (over the underlying bad mood), Yixing finds everyone sitting together with their food cubes like some sort of civilized family. His first thought is _why is nobody yelling?,_ and his second is _is that Sehun running over here?_

_“Hyung.”_ Sehun latches himself onto Junmyeon beside him, burying his head into his shoulder. His voice sounds worryingly emotional, “I love you.”

Probably startled, Junmyeon takes a moment to return the hug, rubbing his back. “I– I love you too, Sehunnie. What’s wrong?” As he soothes whatever is wrong with him, Yixing takes a look at the rest of the group. Most of them are staring this way, but contrary to every other time he and Junmyeon have been stared at, it’s not in a predatory waiting-to-tease way. It’s more of a waiting for the interaction to be over with. What irks him the most is how they are all sitting in silence. No laughs nor smiles among them; not even Baekhyun or Jongdae The Cockblocker. It’s only when Kyungsoo rises, heading over to them, that everything that made him in _kind of_ a bad mood disappears and Yixing becomes _terrified_. He hadn’t told Junmyeon.

He hadn’t told Junmyeon.

Reality locks a heavy chain around his angle and he’s torn down from the clouds. As he’s slammed onto the ground, a tight feeling restricts his chest and everything becomes slow, but his mind is racing. This is not good. This is _really_ not good. Junmyeon must be worried, right now, wondering why Sehun is practically crying and everyone else is as solemn as a funeral. Yixing’s not wondering because he knows exactly what’s going on: it’s night. Right now they’re to discuss what to do. It’s time that everyone should be knowing the context and they’ll all come up with a plan; something.

It’s too late to go back now. It’s too late to stop him at the cave exit and say _Junmyeon, there’s actually something I have to tell you. It’s going to sound really crazy, but…_ Yixing’s heart speeds up and his face starts to burn. What is he supposed to do now?! Inevitably, Junmyeon is going to find out in the next couple minutes. But it’s going to be so much at once, with everyone depending on Strong Leader Junmyeon, like Sehun right now, except Strong Leader Junmyeon is only _just_ finding out about it and hasn’t even had time to process himself! 

There’s also one more thing wrong. Why are Baekhyun and Minseok a part of this? Why are they sitting with blank looks on their faces? They had called him crazy. Even more, why is _anyone_ a part of this? It’s all crazy!

“Sehun, _please,_ tell me what’s wrong,” Junmyeon is panickedly comforting the youngest. Kyungsoo is approaching. Yixing’s heart drops. Kyungsoo’s going to hate him. He’s just ruined any chance of ever getting Kyungsoo’s forgiveness.

However, contrary to the expected glare at him, Kyungsoo instead is looking at Junmyeon. “Let’s go.” He says, “We don’t have all night.”

Junmyeon looks to Kyungsoo in confusion. “Wait, what?” Is this what Junmyeon would’ve said had Yixing done what he was supposed to? “Did I miss something?”

And _then_ there’s that glare at Yixing. At horrified, flustered Yixing. The live situation restrains him from anything from panic and his stomach begins to churn. He tries to think of what to do but at this point, quite frankly, he doesn’t know what to do anymore. He’s just bound to fuck things up.

“You told him, _right?”_ Kyungsoo’s eyes are wide with a frustrated concern. “Or did you _also_ fail to tell even your boyfriend?”

_Also?_ Then why are Baekhyun and Minseok _there?_ He _thought_ he hadn’t gotten it through to them, but they’re there. He doesn’t get it.

“Ah… Yixing?” Junmyeon’s tone has lost all the giddy happiness from a couple minutes ago. “What’s he talking about?”

Kyungsoo scoffs.

“Sehun, you take Junmyeon-hyung and try to fill him in.” Kyungsoo looks to Sehun who Yixing sneaks a glance at. This time, Yixing can read his face: shock, betrayal, anger. Why didn’t Yixing-hyung tell his _boyfriend?_ Maybe he really is a terrible person, just like I thought. But I believe Kyungsoo? Sehun believes Kyungsoo?

And it’s just like that Junmyeon’s being led to the group, muttering confused starts of questions and taking looks back that Yixing refuses to return.

“You–”

“They thought I was crazy.” Yixing blurts before Kyungsoo can say anything. He doesn’t know why Baekhyun and Minseok are over there, but Kyungsoo just needs to know. “I tried. I really did. And they called me crazy, they didn’t believe me. And I just hadn’t gotten to–”

_“’Hadn’t gotten to?’”_ Kyungsoo interrupts. “What have you been doing for the past _two hours,_ then?” Thank _god_ it’s a rhetorical question, “And I _don’t care_ if they called you crazy, I expected it, even, but when I brought everyone together trying to consolidate the story, Baekhyun had _no idea_ about RF and Earth and Minseok had _no idea_ about the three. _I_ had to do all the fucking work to make up for _you_. Do you know how exhausting it is to convince _six_ of them of that? And now _seven?”_

Oh. So that’s why they’re there. “They all…” How exhausting it is to convince seven of them. “They all believed you?” He takes another look at the group, they’re still sitting.

_“Yes,_ they all believed me. Took a while, but they all believed me.”

Yixing doesn’t get it. How could he receive such strong rejections from Baekhyun and Minseok yet Baekhyun and Minseok both currently sit over there as solemn as monks ready to discuss? He went through everything alongside Kyungsoo, they had the same exact information, claims to stake, evidence to support, calls for actions to give… so _why_ do they believe Kyungsoo over him?

_They don’t trust you, obviously_. It’s things like this that show despite Baekhyun and Kyungsoo’s aversion, Minseok and Kyungsoo’s mutual disregard, they all trust each other more than they’d ever trust Yixing. It’s fucking clear by now Yixing’s intimacy with anyone here is an illusion he’s fallen for.

Though, in fruitless hope, he still tries to question it: even if Kyungsoo’s more trustworthy than Yixing is, just how far can trust take them? To believe RF killed whose mission-led deaths they’ve accepted for a year and that they’ve been living a manipulated lie?

_Maybe it’s not just trust. Maybe it’s because they love Kyungsoo too._

“And like I said,” Kyungsoo continues. “Even if they didn’t believe you, you could’ve at least _given_ them all of the information.”

“I’m sorry. I’m _really_ sorry.” Yixing glances at the group again. Kyungsoo was filling them all in on everything while he was letting Junmyeon kiss him and touch him in ways that’d make him forget his responsibilities. But maybe it’s better like this. It’s better that Yixing didn’t have to find out if Junmyeon is really any different from the rest of them.

“You’re _sorry?!”_ After the raise of voice, Kyungsoo looks past him to the group. Yixing follows his gaze to see a couple had looked. Right now, Junmyeon’s face is blank and Sehun and Jongdae are talking. Kyungsoo continues quietly, “How hard is it for you to do _one_ fucking thing right?” His eyes shine and voice quivers with what could only be the cusp of a breakdown. A terrible guilt clenches Yixing’s chest.

“Kyungsoo, I’m–“

“If you were really sorry for _any_ of this in the first place, you would’ve tried harder. You wouldn’t have left me.” Kyungsoo’s scornful eyes meet his before he steps past him, heading to the group. They’ve picked their heads up to look at Kyungsoo, Yixing a dozen feet away.

Yixing quickly becomes aware of all the freedom around him, the opportunity between the tiny group of eight and the vast rest of the planet. The incentive to run away, to avoid confronting it all and just _escape_. There’s absolutely nothing stopping him from getting lost in the caves and absolutely everything stopping him from joining EXO.

He could…

Yet, he knows that running away, no matter how far, will ultimately end up in returning, because he doesn’t want to die. So, Yixing walks straight towards several faces contorted in frustration. It’s the subtle type of mutual hate, one that is manifest in the small things like how Jongdae and Minseok exchange a glance after looking at him, Jongin’s lips are thinned, Chanyeol and Baekhyun look him up and down, eyes flickering between him and Junmyeon, Sehun downright glares, and Kyungsoo ignores his presence all together.

Everyone is situated against or on a rock in a kind of circle. All they’re missing is the campfire in the middle. EXO has been brought close: Minseok and Jongdae are cuddled together, the latter holding Baekhyun’s hand, who is leaning in on Jongin who’s hugging Kyungsoo’s arm. Kyungsoo’s the one last in the row, the cat in his lap. It separates to the other side where Chanyeol holds Sehun’s hand. The youngest is cuddled up to Junmyeon, his other hand occupied with both of Junmyeon’s. Junmyeon’s boyfriend sits maybe a foot away from him. Everybody except for one of them has a silver grey cube.

The intimacy excludes Yixing, but shouldn’t he be used to being in this kind of dynamic?

Why does it hurt so much?

Because of this, the weight crushing him and a sudden burn at his eyes, everything in Yixing gives up any kind of confrontation, sorry I had done wrong, why don't you trust me?, and he looks down at the space in front of his feet. His body buzzes with exhaustion and shame and he prays nobody’s looking at him. People are talking, Junmyeon’s talking, but he can’t bring himself to listen. How is it that everything has gone so bad? How is it so quick that he’s ruined all of his relationships? How is it that he cares so much? He wouldn’t have cared this much three months ago, where he’d punch one of them and feel satisfied about it. But now that Yixing is diminished to something that can fit in his jacket pocket.

_“–Yixing-hyung?”_

Sehun’s questioning eyes.

Luckily, it’s tacit he hadn’t been paying attention and Sehun repeats himself. “Why didn’t you tell Junmyeon?” He asks, but it’s more like a statement. Like a magnet, all eyes dart to him. Scrutinizing him. They’re confused, because why wouldn’t Yixing tell his own boyfriend? They’re disappointed, because it seems the newbie has fucked up yet again. Good thing to never have trusted him. Poor Yixing just can’t do _anything_ right, can he?

Yixing looks to Junmyeon. It reminds him of last night when he had snapped, the way his eyes are widened, brows lifted, lips parted, maybe he’s struggling to say something.

“Do you just _not care?”_ Sehun presses. His arms wrap around Junmyeon to pull him closer to himself and any reply Yixing had is stifled by a wave of hurt. Why is Sehun just like Kyungsoo? Believes Kyungsoo?

_No, I care, I just–_

“Of course he doesn’t care.” Jongdae scoffs. Why is Jongdae just like Kyungsoo? Believes Kyungsoo? “He never even knew them.”

He didn’t, no. Is _that_ why they believe Kyungsoo and not him? But that still doesn’t mean he doesn’t–

“I’d still think he’d tell his _boyfriend_ all this about RF.” Sehun replies.

“Me too, but it–“

_“He–“_ Junmyeon’s voice comes out weak and adrenaline rushes into Yixing. Why is he talking? “He was occupied– by me. It’s… it’s my fault. I never gave him the chance to say anything.”

Yixing doesn’t take this chance to say anything either.

Replied mumbles are drowned out by Kyungsoo speaking up. “It doesn’t matter now… so anyway, back… back to what we were saying, alright? I don’t know how long we have and we have to solve it now, or we’ll never– never be able to.”

Kyungsoo isn’t the best public speaker, and it’s clear he’s nervous by the way he keeps picking at the cat’s hair (to which it quickly gets sick of and relocates to Jongin’s lap), but he receives nods and mumbles because they all trust him, they all believe him, they all love him. Yixing knows he shouldn’t be hoping for this, but why doesn’t there seem to be an ounce of doubt in _anyone?_ After being told they’ve been _living a lie?_ Yifan Luhan and Zitao were _murdered?_ Kyungsoo had said none of them ever showed any suspicion, so it’s all completely new to them. Or, at least, it’s completely new to them from Kyungsoo’s observations.

“So, Hyung, it’s because _they_ were the ones that destroyed CF. They wanted their method of communication, Mandarin, to– to be clandestine. Originally, they had planned to destroy RF from the same blunt force method and then tell us all, and then somehow we’d figure out how to get back home. They had said all this themselves in the recording– records– yeah, you know what I’m talking about… And they were doing it in the middle of the night, when we were all told the ‘night mission’ was, only that… it wasn’t a mission. They were put to death. By RF.”

Jongdae mumbles something that Yixing thinks he hears his name in, but the only other context he gets is him and Minseok averting their gazes not from Yixing but from _Kyungsoo_ when Kyungsoo looks at them. Kyungsoo’s doesn’t seem to notice. The cat mewls in Jongin’s lap. Yixing looks back down.

_Do_ they believe Kyungsoo?

As the suspicion builds, Yixing looks back up. Minseok’s face is completely calm; would it be so if he truly believed Kyungsoo? Maybe. Yixing has never seen Minseok panicked unless it was something to do with his phobias, but still, what if he actually doesn’t believe him? What if they’re pretending to believe him because they love him enough to do that?

Meanwhile, Junmyeon’s face is blank, blinking in bafflement as he tries to process. Sehun rubs his shoulder, snuggling into his elder. Something within Yixing burns. 

“They… _what?”_ Junmyeon’s voice is filled with a shock new to Yixing. It’s uncomfortable seeing him anything but happy. _“RF_05,_ the robot who leads us, _killed_ them? And what do you mean– what do you even mean you– they– _suspect_ her? I don’t… I don’t… you all know about this? What? Why didn’t I…”

“We just found out today, Hyung.” Sehun says. “They went around telling everyone cause on missions RF can’t hear unless the mics are on. Yixing-hyung and Kyungsoo-hyung. Only that…” Yixing averts his eyes because he knows Sehun’s going to look at him, Junmyeon’s eyes following. He doesn’t know what to do so he continues to block everything out. “...Don’t know why.”

Kyungsoo continues rather quickly, “We suspect her in that we don’t think we’re actually saving the universe– that– that there’s an ulterior motive. There was a series of things, just, _stuff,_ events and details, that Yixing and I had found strange about this place– and one of them was the fact that they had destroyed CF, and planning to RF next. So… so, of course, we wanted to know why, because they were sensible people, they wouldn’t do that for no reason… so we investigated and found things… I know it sounds crazy… are you alright?”

“Yes,” Yixing alarmedly looks to him. Junmyeon rubs his temples in a stressed manner, hands sliding up into his hair. “I’m okay, it’s just… all of this. At once. It’s unbelievable. But I believe you.” Would he have believed Yixing? “But I also… Kyungsoo, I really don’t know about that… _RF?”_

Glances exchange amongst the group, most specifically, Baekhyun and Minseok and Jongdae, maybe Baekhyun and Minseok think Kyungsoo’s crazy too?, and Baekhyun even opens his mouth but Kyungsoo speaks first.

“I know it’s crazy.” Kyungsoo says what Yixing should’ve said. What Yixing should’ve said when he told Junmyeon this himself. “Take your time.”

Junmyeon shakes his head. “No, continue, please.”

“Are you sure?” Kyungsoo asks and Baekhyun’s mouth is closed again.

“Yes.”

“Alright… So obviously, after we found that RF killed them, we had to look more into her. Especially since it was clear from things that she didn’t want us to look– um, have I shown you this?”

“…I’ve…I’ve noticed that before. Chafing?”

_Chafing._

“Um, not quite. Third degree burn. RF heated up the bracelet to melt my skin until I bled so much I passed out. But sure, _chafing.”_ Kyungsoo states calmly, though Yixing senses the bit of spite. “Your boyfriend has one too, if he didn’t tell you.”

And then _everyone’s_ looking at Yixing, the bandage on his wrist, and he stays as still as possible. He knows Junmyeon is looking at him and remembering all the times he had dodged the topic. “You were with him the night he got it, too, if I recall correctly.” Kyungsoo adds. Why does he have to add that?

“Oh…” Hides whatever Junmyeon really wants to say.

“Wait, _Yixing_ has one too?” Sehun's eyes widen.

“Take it off.” Suddenly comes a voice that hasn’t been in the conversation. Baekhyun’s eyes meet his with the utmost sincerity, though it’s with a glint similar to when he said to stay away from him. “The bandage. Take it off.”  
  
Even though Yixing knows absolutely _nobody_ is on his side, he still defaults a look to Kyungsoo. As he expects (though it doesn’t make his heart sting any less), Kyungsoo merely raises his brows, making a ‘go on’ point of the chin when Yixing stares long enough.

But he supposes it’s the least he can do to redeem himself a little, even if it makes his heart beat faster as he picks at the edge of the bandage, maneuvering it under the tight space of his bracelet to reveal the second bracelet surrounding his wrist. It’s the first time he’s looked at it in about a month, it’s no longer full of that puss that made the whole bandage reek or purple spider-web reminiscent formations, but it’s still an unnaturally dark red with patches of even darker purples and browns.

He holds his bracelet as close as to the base of his hand as possible to show EXO the thing he’s been trying to hide the longest.

“That’s… really…” Baekhyun’s eyes are a bit widened, similar to Jongdae and Minseok. Chanyeol and Jongin have jaws dropped while Junmyeon looks absolutely mortified and Sehun and Kyungsoo are unreadable.

And the first thing Junmyeon thought was _chafing._

“Yeah. Yixing has one too.” Yixing takes Kyungsoo’s continuation as a sign to stop showing it, though he’s still stared at even after he puts it down, hides it in his lap, tries to put the bandage back on but the angle’s too tight. He resorts to folding his sleeve over everything. “We both were burned while exploring the ship and finding something we apparently weren’t supposed to. It hurt. A lot. In case you needed to verify it wasn’t chafing,” Kyungsoo glances at Baekhyun, who’s lips are still parted. So Baekhyun _had_ doubted him? Does he still? “But– but anyway, it was that, and other stuff, that we just started to, well, question things, and from that we went to the records room, took stuff from the information center…” Yixing feels eyes on him because Junmyeon’s realizing Yixing had an ulterior motive to their first date. What more did he lie about? “But we– we couldn’t tell any of you, because it was too much of a risk. They died because they weren’t careful. They had their bracelets and security cameras all monitoring them. So we had to be stealthy.”

“But– but what about–”

“Right now the mics are off and bracelet listening can’t be accessed because we’re not on the ship.” Kyungsoo assures. “We aren’t making the same mistake they did.”

Suddenly, a gentle voice comes in. _“I remember,”_ Jongdae has never been this quiet and Yixing has to look. Jongdae looks different than he did five minutes ago, expression now no longer suspiciously calm. “I remember when I was playing against Yifan-hyung. The day before he… and he said he loved me. And I thought that was really… weird. Especially since I beat him.” He sinks into Minseok’s shoulder, receiving a pat on the head. Even Minseok himself looks quite offput. Had the gruesome scar really made that much of a difference? What if he had shown it to Baekhyun and Minseok in the first place?

“You know, Luhan told me to be safe.” Baekhyun says, in a similar state as Jongdae. “Out of nowhere. So I thought he was joking about, uhm, something else.”

“Lu… he. . . you know.” Sehun starts, but doesn’t elaborate. Junmyeon must know what he’s talking about, because he pulls him close and rubs his back. Yixing bristles.

“Wait, Luhan told you to _‘be safe’?”_ Minseok sits up straighter.

“Um– yeah?”

“Why didn’t you _ever_ mention that?” Minseok’s eyes are narrowed and Yixing is confused as to why it sounds so pointed.

“I don’t think I ever kept it from you guys or anything. Just didn’t come up…” Baekhyun’s looking back at Minseok and his face falters, _“What?_ Why are you–”

“Because he told me that too.” 

It occurs to Yixing: everyone really does know different things. Everyone has different ‘insignificant’ details. Different plot holes. Perhaps this talk is long needed. What would have happened had they not avoided talking about them like Junmyeon had mentioned? Would they have reached these details sooner? Would Yixing not even be here because they would have stopped RF months ago?

Baekhyun’s eyes widen, _“What?_ Then why didn’t _you–”_

Kyungsoo intervenes, “Why didn’t _either_ of you–”

_“You_ never mentioned–”

“I _swear_ I said–”

“I didn’t think it was–”

_“Guys,_ guys,” Despite his state, Junmyeon still comes in to calm things, “it’s okay. None of us ever thought twice about things they’ve said– or, or even if we did, we never thought it would mean something like… this.” Everyone goes quiet when the leader speaks. Even if they all leave him hanging on a fistbump, they still look to him for all the answers.

“Just… let’s not avoid communicating with each other, okay? _Please?”_

“Yeah,” Chanyeol is the first to agree. “Like that saying, _communication is key.”_ The rest of the agreements come in nods and hums. Yixing remains still.

“I’ll– I’ll continue,” Kyungsoo says shyly, doing so when granted silence. “So we did research and we strongly hypothesized that RF’s intentions were in fact bad.” Maybe Yixing should be glad Kyungsoo is explaining it. Maybe he would have never been able to in the first place. “And the biggest thing is that she was built, everything here was built, by a, well, psychopath. We found in the records, the password protected part, by the way, that he was Portuguese, hence all of the, um, Portuguese speaking stuff, and that he’s a criminal. Built weapons. Murdered people. And also, something that caught the attention of a bunch of local newspapers, hated ‘humanity’. Like, people. He– he built RF to destroy humanity, or Earth, because he believed that humans would cause problems in space. We don’t know how exactly. Just that it’s what he wanted to do.”

“So he wants to–“ Junmyeon’s voice comes out scratchy, so he clears his throat. “So RF was made– RF wants to _kill_ our species? And they saw this and wanted to stop her and couldn’t…? But… how? How could she do it? Why would we– why would _we_ help?”

“We’re not entirely sure.” Yixing hates how he keeps using that pronoun, how he keeps getting looked at. Now that it’s certain, or it seems certain, that they all believe him, and Yixing really _is_ the bad guy. “We’re only recently realizing all of this, so we didn’t have that much time to look. But we think it has something to do with the Tree of Life. Remember that yellow root, Junmyeon-hyung? From the last Exoplanet visit?” A nod. “It _is_ a wire. RF lied. And CF had told Yifan, before he started suspecting, I assume, that it’s actually a giant battery. But the power isn’t for eradicating the red force. It’s for ending the human race. Somehow.”

“And us being involved is cause we’re part of the species?” Baekhyun asks. “I mean, it’d give her a lot of insider information on how people work. Like, she always asks me about stuff…”

“I get similar questions from my post.” Chanyeol adds.

“Um, yeah, exactly. Baekhyun-hyung, you’re right…” Kyungsoo and Baekhyun are awfully civilized with each other. Perhaps that is what mutual fear does. “And the fact that we also have the qualities she needs and lack the ones that’d put her in danger. Like, we can only speak Korean– well, and Mandarin. And all of the technology speaks Portuguese. And we’re the most athletically inclined for our species: males around twenty. We’re not the smartest. We couldn’t even figure out what The Prophecy meant– even though I really now think it’s a bunch of bullshit. And we also don’t know really anything about space or astronomy, excluding you Yeol. And, no offense, but some of us make too much drama to really start thinking about these things.”

“Offense taken, bitch.” Baekhyun squints. Kyungsoo flips him off and the normality is slightly calming.

“This is crazy…” Junmyeon mutters, though he does seem to be taking it much easier than Yixing would’ve thought. There aren’t even tears. Quite the juxtaposition to Yixing’s three month long mental breakdown.

For once, the leader receives sympathy.

“I know.”

“That’s what we’re all thinking.”

“I can’t… believe it either…”

“It’s a lot.”

Yixing looks up, but doesn’t say anything. Junmyeon’s distraught face gains a bit of a smile from the comments.

“It’s okay, though,” Jongin says though his expression tells otherwise. He’s holding the cat so tightly this time it can’t escape. “Because we’re all in it together. So we’ll figure out what to do.”

“Yeah,” Chanyeol agrees. “And also, guys, she’s– she’s a robot. So from– from being programmed, she thinks she does things perfectly. She didn’t expect CF to be destroyed, cause, well, she _was_ destroyed. And so she probably doesn’t expect us to know about it. This. Everything.”

“Uhm, actually, she does know some of us know about it.” Kyungsoo lifts up his wrist with a wry smile and then several pairs of eyes return to Yixing’s wrist. “But for the most part, yeah. If we can even _suspect_ her in the first place, we can stop her. But it has to be soon. She will have no idea that any of you know, and we don’t want her to find out, so we have to do something really quick.”

Maybe that’s where Yixing had been wrong. He hadn’t thought of it that way. He thought anybody else knowing was a dead end, not an opportunity. Even if it made him feel better to not have to keep a giant secret, still a dead end. But now that Chanyeol says it, Kyungsoo says it, they’re _right._

“If– if CF was destroyed by just the three of them, then couldn’t we just destroy RF with all eight– sorry, um, nine, of us?” Though, by the way he subsequently looks Yixing up and down, Jongdae really means eight. _Eight._ Eleven in a better universe.

“And what about, like, after?” Baekhyun participates when Jongdae does. “She controls everything. We’d just be stranded in space.”

Kyungsoo goes off of this, “Exactly. So I think we should do it at Exoplanet. But I don’t know when that’s going to be. We need it to be soon.”

“We could always ask to go. And didn’t she say this mission was a really important addition to the Tree, too?” Chanyeol says.

“Yeah. She did.” Kyungsoo nods. “So we could just make up an excuse to go earlier and then destroy her there. So then we have all the Exoplanet _and_ ship resources.”

“And we’d also get to kill the Tree of Life!” Jongin bursts out with an idea. “You said that was important, right, Kyung?”

“Yes, Jongin. So we’d be killing two birds with one stone. RF and the Tree.”

“And then we’d be saving the world…” Jongin says like he can’t believe it, like saving the universe is much more plausible.

“But after…” Chanyeol says. “It’s all a… good plan. But like Baek said, what would we do after? How do we get back to Earth? Gosh, saying that out loud…”

“We can learn.” Kyungsoo says it as Yixing thinks it. “Exoplanet has all of the resources and information we need. We can learn how to manipulate the technology to bring us back. It might take a while, but it’s definitely possible.”

At least, that’s what he says. It’s a couple of moments before someone else speaks.

“That’s a good idea, actually...” Jongdae says. Baekhyun nods along.

“Yeah.”

Minseok speaks for the first time, “I wouldn’t see anything else…”

_“Oh!”_ Chanyeol clearly has an idea as he raises his hand. He puts it down sheepishly after getting weird looks. “We could learn Portuguese! And then just tell the technology to bring us back. Instead of if we learned how to engineer and everything.”

“Yeah, if that’d work.”

It all fills Yixing’s empty chest with confidence, actual realistic belief in getting out of this. Alive. The going to Earth part is more whimsical, for now. Despite the completely reasonable plan, it doesn’t quite reconcile with his brain. There’s a dash of hopefulness thrown into the mixture of his anxiety and stress and fatigue and everything’s processing too slow. He still can't believe they _believe_ Kyungsoo. They've been keeping this so long that other minds being involved is surreal.

And, if he can get back home, he won’t ever have to face any of them again. He can get Cat and hide under his covers until he forgets any of this ever happened. 

“So, let me piece this together,” Junmyeon takes back his leader position. “We’re going to get back from the mission– wait. Are we still going to collect SE_1, then?”

“I think it’s risky.” Kyungsoo says.

“We should.” Baekhyun counters. “Cause it’ll be more risky if we bring something else back and she finds out.”

“But then she’ll be able to restore the Tree of Life. She said that.”

“Um, no she didn’t.” At Kyungsoo’s confused face, Baekhyun elaborates. “She only said it was important. Plus, the carrier is, like, designed specifically _for_ it. So I think it’d notice if it wasn’t SE_1.”

At Kyungsoo’s silence, Baekhyun’s face lights up. “Oh my god, did _I_ just prove _you–“_

“Shut up.” Kyungsoo snaps, though it doesn’t hinder Baekhyun’s excitement one bit. He points and makes faces until Minseok raises a fist and then he immediately sits upright with a solemn countenance.

“Okay,” Junmyeon chuckles, “so we’re going to bring SE_1 back. And we’re going to go to Exoplanet because…”

“We’re out of toilet paper.” Baekhyun says.

“But we’re not.”

“We’re out of popsicles.”

“That’s because Jongin keeps hiding them.”

Jongin glares at Kyungsoo. “How do you– I mean, _no I don’t!”_

“We’re out of good ideas.”

“Shut up, Sehun. I haven’t seen _you_ contribute anything.” Baekhyun spits, though he says nothing of Jongdae and Minseok who have been nearly silent the whole time.

“Hey, be nice.” Junmyeon scolds.

“Did anyone forget anything important there?” Chanyeol tries, getting a bunch of shakes of the head. 

“What if I seduce her?”

“See?” Sehun glares at Baekhyun, “Bad ideas.”

“I was kidding, dumbass.”

“Now’s not the time for jokes.”

“I think a good comic relief is nice.”

“What about something of Zitao or Luhan or Yifan’s?” Kyungsoo suggests. “We aren’t eliciting pity, but furthermore proving we don’t suspect anything of their deaths. So, obviously, it would be one of you asking, but you could say a belonging of theirs you want to get is there. And RF would have absolutely zero reason to not have us go unless she wouldn’t want us to see it.”

“Good idea, Kyungsoo.” Junmyeon says, “But what item?”

“Yifan’s diary.”

“Yifan’s _what?”_

“He had a _what?”_

“So he _did_ have a diary?”

“Yifan was literate?” At the last one, Baekhyun gets smacked upside the head.

Kyungsoo nods. “Yeah, he did. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to find it, but I did. At Exoplanet. It’s in this drawer way out in the ex-halls.” The _what_ -halls? Was this something he read about?

“Okay, okay,” Baekhyun says, rubbing the side of his head. “but, important question: what did he write in it?”

Kyungsoo scoffs. “I’m not going to tell you. We only need it for an excuse, not our indulgence.” He glares so hard that Baekhyun looks down, the slight smirk from earlier disappearing. Minseok smacks him again.

Junmyeon continues, “So we’re going to go to Exoplanet under that excuse? I think Jongdae, you should ask, because you’re a good actor,” Jongdae merely looks up in response. “And we get to Exoplanet. What then?”

“I don’t know how they did it exactly, but I know they just used the blunt force of their powers to destroy her.” Kyungsoo says. “We can do the same. I mean, it’s a big disadvantage to not be able to stop time, but we have more people and more powers to use. I say we just… go into her room and destroy her? It wouldn’t be the first time all of us have randomly gone to her at the same time.”

Jongin must have been squeezing the cat too hard because after the question, there’s a loud yelp from both Jongin and the animal. Jongin holds his finger (and then starts to suck on it which Yixing isn’t sure is the best idea…) while the cat skitters off to Minseok’s lap.

Junmyeon frowns at the exchange. “Alright, so– so we’ll do that, and then what about the Tree of Life?”

“I want to investigate it.” Kyungsoo answers. “To see how it works. But our main focus will be finding a way back to Earth. But I’ll try to learn about the Tree, too. It might be of use.”

This receives agreements and nods, once again an open-mouthed Baekhyun once again shying away from whatever he was going to say.

“Alright– so– that sounds like a… plan…?” Junmyeon trails off, the silence remaining. Yixing looks up to see everybody with a kind of stumped expression, as if they hadn’t just planned everything out. Is it because there’s no hope that it will actually work? Will something happen similar to children diving into the water, where they hold hands and count down from three but none of them actually jump? Yixing knows he should be rooting for them to carry out this plan, to destroy RF, but he still finds himself hoping something like that will happen.

Or is it because they don't actually believe him? Is this all out of pity and a slightly surreal atmosphere, as if it's a dream so they'll take these claims about RF at face value as if they don't contradict everything they've lived with for years? Perhaps some are pressured because it looks like others bought into it? Because it has to do with their deaths? But when Yixing showed his wrist, the mood visibly shifted for those who looked doubtful. Sure, a scar could be convincing evidence, but what _else_ did Kyungsoo do? What did he do different than Yixing to not be called a psychopath? What did he do to make them sit there quietly? What did he do to make them criticize Yixing when they found out he didn't tell Junmyeon? What's the secret?

Or do they all really just hate Yixing that much?

_“AGENTS!”_ Nine people jump. For the first time, it’s in absolute silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> could not let you be happy for long now could i~
> 
> was this what you expected? it clearly wasn't what yixing expected– but do you think yixing's viewpoint is accurate? do they in fact believe kyungsoo? yixing didn't exactly examine much with his head down most of the time... or perhaps it's completely plausible they believe kyungsoo?
> 
> and better question, what's going to become of this 'plan'?
> 
> also, if you can spot the line that was subverted from an early chapter I will give u a million dollars I promise I am not lying when have you ever seen me lie


	50. The Only Entity in the Universe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another rocky confrontation and at this point, Yixing just doesn't know what to do anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW/SPOILER:
> 
> panic attack

**"BECAUSE YOU ARE** humans that have a specific manner of charging, you will again proceed into an idle period of twelve hours. You will be split into four groups, I do not care how except that Agent Chen and Hyunee are to be separated, and will each have three hour watches and nine hour rests. During the watches you will remain outside of your tent unit and during the rest periods I expect you to be sleeping. Once you split yourselves into groups, I will assign the order.”

Yixing becomes aware of himself and he picks his head up. There’s absolutely _no one_ he wants to be with right now, and he highly doubts the reciprocal is any different.

Despite trying to keep his gaze down, he hadn’t missed the glances and whispers. It doesn’t seem Baekhyun and Minseok will apologize for calling him crazy. Yixing had blatantly kept what was so important a secret from EXO’s _leader_. He would be shocked if Kyungsoo had spoken of him kindly. It’s worse than in his school when told to partner up for a project, because back then, everyone was just neutral to him. Here, everyone hurries to form groups and Sehun takes Junmyeon with a strong pull away from him, and maybe Yixing should just sleep outside. He could cover the whole night’s watch. It’s not like he’s going to sleep anyway. Plus, if he passes out from exhaustion he won’t have to deal with anything because he will be unconscious.

But what _about_ Junmyeon?

Voices begin as the tents start to be passed out, and Yixing knows he has to explain to him, because Junmyeon’s different. He _can’t_ have Junmyeon thinking he hates him, he’s set him up, he manipulated him, he never loved him, or whatever conclusion sprawled from this, the shocked _Oh.._. But it’s so scary. Yixing _knows_ he has ruined what’s perfect and it’ll never be the same way again. Just how much did he ruin it? Just what does he have to confront?

“Hyung, you’re not _seriously_ going to–“

“Sehunnie,” Junmyeon is putting his hands on Sehun’s shoulders, the rest of the talking zones out for, “I really need to… talk to him. Alone. Could you please go with Chanyeol tonight, or someone?”

 _“What?”_ Sehun’s glare goes right to Yixing, but Yixing is too busy freaking out in relief because _he’s got somewhere to sleep_ but _what’s he going to say?!_ “You’re– you’re seriously choosing–“

“No, it’s not that. I just need to solve some personal things.” Junmyeon’s voice is gentle, but it’s the first time Yixing has heard it sound so tension-filled.

“Some… some _personal_ things…” Sehun looks back from Yixing. “So I’m not worthy of… okay. _Fine.”_

“No, Sehun, I don’t–“ Junmyeon grabs Sehun’s wrist, but he simply yanks it away, narrowing his eyes at his best friend before joining Chanyeol, though he’s quickly stolen by Baekhyun (and Chanyeol goes to Jongin and Kyungsoo).

Yixing watches as Junmyeon huffs, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head. He doesn’t say anything to Yixing, he doesn’t even look at Yixing, but instead turns around and haphazardly tosses the tent.

 _What to say what to say what to say_ A panic identical to the one of last night comes, except it remains at a climax: it’s the moment Yixing snapped at Junmyeon and saw hurt on his face but it’s no longer a moment. It’s several moments, minutes, that he can’t breathe as well. He isn’t prepared to confront months of lying all in one night. Is that what Junmyeon will ask about? What did he mean, 'solve some personal things'? Does he mean break up because Yixing’s clearly not who he thought he was? No, he can’t mean that…

The vermillion red flashes to signal the tent is on and despite nothing dangerous happening, another rush of fear comes in at the memory of RF flashing it at him from the door.

He was so scared, yet everyone here seems to think it’ll be easy? Yet everyone here has no problem believing it? Would it be like this if all of them had their wrists burned and lives threatened? Do they really _understand_ what everything just discussed implicates? Were they just pretending to believe it for Kyungsoo’s sake? For Kyungsoo's sake. What about Yixing's sake? Why don't they care about Yixing's sake?

“Very well.” RF speaks. “Agents Xiumin and Chen will take the first watch. Agents Suho and Lay will take the second. Agents D.O, Kai, and DohBi will take the third. Agents Hyunee and Xuanxu will take the fourth. Please _sleep_ during your rest periods. I do not expect any trouble during the watches. It is more for precautionary measures. However, if you need me, I am here. The rest period begins now. Goodnight.”

Nobody replies.

Yixing’s heart gets faster and faster as the area clears out and he’s once again presented with the thought of running away; he’d rather confront endless mountains and stones, even if the stones move and bite. Yet, like earlier, he’s soon entering the homey (at appearance, at least) tent with muscles tense as if he’s about to be swarmed by a bunch of bees.

Junmyeon’s sat quietly at the right bed, removing his shoes. It’s as if he hadn’t heard the door open and shut.

“You lied to me.”

Scratch that.

Yixing doesn’t know what to say and the tone of voice isn’t kind so he becomes even more scared. He sits as far away as he can at the left side of the bed, looking down at his shoes. He doesn’t know how to do this. He’s never had conflict with Junmyeon– at least, not conflict like this. Not when it’s personal. Not when Junmyeon realizes Yixing’s been the same asshole who wrote that list the whole time. Will Junmyeon turn strict as he had that night? But what to scold Yixing about that he doesn’t already know? Will he even continue? Or is Yixing supposed to talk now? God, he should have run away when he had the chance.

“Sorry– um…” Yixing looks up because it’s not him saying it. There’s a moment of eye contact before Junmyeon looks away. He finishes undressing and it’s now just the navy cargo sweats and the white dress-shirt scooting back onto the bed. Yixing realizes he hasn’t even untied his shoes and averts his eyes.

“This is all just so…” Junmyeon continues softly, it’s clear he’s in shock. “But I don’t see why Kyungsoo would lie…” Why _Kyungsoo_ would lie. “And all at once, I– I don’t really know where to begin…”

Yixing finds his right hand having trouble coordinating his fingers around the knots he made, so he switches to his left which isn’t really any better and he ends up forcing them off. The erratic movement brings slightly heated cheeks and he stays discreet removing the rest of his attire, as if he’s not really there. The bandage also goes in one of the compartments.

“Yixing… you– you love me, right?”

 _“What?”_ Is the first Yixing speaks, picking his head up to meet an almost scared countenance. Why is he thinking he doesn’t love him? Why is he asking that? What makes him–

“Sorry– _sorry, I’m sorry.”_ A profuse apology. “I didn’t mean– I– just…” Yixing notices how his fingers clench around the blanket. His breaths become a bit heavier, and with his gaze on the floor, zoned out, Yixing almost thinks he’s panicking. It’s absolutely terrifying to see him anything but happy. It's so _wrong._

“I mean– just– I’m sorry– no…” They break eye contact and Junmyeon looks to his hands in his lap. “Just that… It’s just that…”

“Junmyeon, just _say_ what you want to say.” Is he just as terrified as he is to talk about this? Maybe, but Yixing isn’t so sure it’s for the same reason. Yixing’s afraid to face the truth and Junmyeon’s afraid to be anything but purely kind. Why? Why isn’t he mad? Why is he afraid to show he’s mad? Afraid to hurt the feelings of someone who clearly hasn’t cared all along? Yixing knows Junmyeon has problems with agency, but god, he didn’t think it went _this_ far. Shouldn’t he be calling him an asshole and breaking up with him?

 _“Right… just say what I want to say…”_ Comes a mutter. Junmyeon picks his head and voice up and that’s when Yixing looks away. It’s a game of cat and mouse, because one only dares to look when he’s not being looked at.

“Yixing, this all… you kept this _all_ from me… I–I suppose– suppose some makes sense, I wouldn’t say anything either if it was dangerous– but– but you could have at least said you were unhappy. You could have _not_ pretended everything was fine and kept lying to me.” At the emphasized word, Yixing looks up and Junmyeon looks away, the second of eye contact eliciting an almost automatic, _“Sorry,_ sorry, I…”

It’s a little while before he goes on. “You… you said you weren’t hiding anything from me. You– you said you were fine. Even– even if you– you stopped talking to me, you just sleep whenever we’re together– your eyes are always bloodshot– though I told myself I just hadn’t noticed before… you– you barely remember anything I say. I’ve repeated things to you so many times and it’s like you’ve never heard it– though I told myself you were always like that… But it all makes sense now…” Junmyeon says it in list format, because Yixing’s been so shitty it can go into list format. _I_ _t all makes sense now._

“You… and that nightmare wasn’t a one-time thing, was it…” Unlike that occasion that was most certainly not a one-time thing, Junmyeon now stares directly at his wrist. Yixing’s reflex is to hide it in his lap. Junmyeon says nothing of it. “You kept looking at it… I should’ve noticed… and– and you’ve _never_ told me what happened. You– you– you never tell me anything anymore. We don’t even talk– it–“

His voice begins to lose stability. “It’s like you– like you only want me to make you feel better– to cuddle and sleep and kiss– and– and so you don’t tell me anything else, so you can forget everything else… is– _is_ that why you didn’t tell me all of this about RF? Why– why you just kept asking me to keep going? You’d have me _pleasure_ you before telling me everything– _sorry,_ I’m sorry…” He then squeaks because Yixing looks up because when Junmyeon puts it that way, he feels _so_ much worse. “Sorry, just… it would’ve been _so_ much easier if you told me. I– I had no idea what was going on– I still am so…”

Yixing’s stomach churns as he draws back to what he would’ve thought the best moments of his life. When Junmyeon straddled him and kissed his neck and ran his hands through his hair and called him beautiful and Yixing valued his lust over anything else. Did it knowingly, willingly. Held off everything _knowing_ it would be so much harder for him.

A voice echoes in his head: _I always knew you were independent, but I didn’t know you were this fucking_ selfish, _Yixing. God…_

“Just– just–“ Junmyeon’s shaky voice gains a sudden emotion and Yixing’s heart burns as he looks up. This time neither look away. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why– why aren’t you honest with me? Why– _why am I not good enough?”_ The last part of the sentence cracks and a loud sniffle follows, he’s crying. “What– what– what–“ He stutters horribly, _“What did I do wrong?_ It’s like _all_ I’ve been doing is trying to make you feel better. Is– is it because I’m not smart enough? Be-be-because I believed _everything_ you said because– because I always believe _everything everyone_ says and _everyone_ walks all over me and– and– and so it was easy to convince me you’re fine and I'm an idiot for worrying so much? Yixing?”

Despite the prompt, Junmyeon doesn’t look to him for an answer. His hand flies up to the bridge of his nose, running up to his temples as tears begin. They run down his cheeks to his chin, dripping onto his shirt. He brings his knees to his chest, burying his head within his solitude. His back shakes with his nearly silent cries but it's the loudest thing Yixing's ever heard.

Junmyeon puts it all in the worst way possible and Yixing once again looks for the exaggeration, the mistake, the lie, but there is none. He has been _using_ Junmyeon, hasn’t he? He’s not keeping Junmyeon safe and happy, he’s keeping a part of his _own_ life safe and happy. Had it been misleading to name this part of his life _Junmyeon?_ His _escape?_ So then he’d think it’s for Junmyeon’s sake that he lies to him and only interacts with him when it produces his own happiness?

“I’m sorry.” The enunciation manifests that Junmyeon is right here, sobbing, and Yixing has ruined so much. A chill runs down his spine and grows a depressive lull in his veins. Junmyeon doesn’t respond. It’s all so wrong.

“And you’re right…” Yixing continues with this because why should he lie anymore? “I’m sorry. I’m not deliberately trying to hurt you. I never was. I’m sorry. I’m just... I'm just a selfish person. I’m not like you. I… I guess I had tricked myself into thinking I was lying for you. That I was protecting you. Though it was more protecting… what we have…” He doesn’t dare to use the past tense. He doesn’t even want to think about the past tense. “Cause– because after I found out about RF everything went downhill and you were the only happy thing, I didn’t want to make that bad too, I–”

“I’m not a _thing.”_ Junmyeon interrupts and Yixing hears the hurt and immediately curses himself for the choice of words. Yixing hasn’t ever heard his voice this raspy, emotional. Junmyeon looks up, eyes red, cheeks shining. “I’m a _person– sorry,_ sorry– I shouldn't…”

He clears his throat, scooting up and back against the wall. “Just… did– did you ever think about my perspective?” It’s what Kyungsoo said too, isn’t it? Why didn’t Yixing just stop being so god damn selfish and _think_ about someone that’s not himself? “When– when– when you kept lying to me– and it– it was suspicious– how different you started acting– but– but I felt like an idiot for being worried– cause– cause you kept saying I was overanalyzing– if– if– if it was _me_ you wanted to keep happy you wouldn’t have kept doing that… why– why did you keep doing that? Why’m I not good enough? Please, just tell me what I can change, what I can do, I– I just want to be good enough for you– please– I–”

 _“Don’t_ say that." It makes no sense, one moment reproaching Yixing and the next begging to be good enough. Why is Junmyeon asking what _he_ can change? Like _he's_ the one at fault. God, he's right: he really is an idiot. "Don’t think that. You’re good enough. You’re _too_ good. Don’t think that.” He’s not going to lose Junmyeon too, is he? Why haven’t Minseok and Baekhyun apologized to him after they realized he was telling the truth and why isn’t Junmyeon understanding? Why does Kyungsoo still hate him and _why_ does it all hurt so fucking much? It’s as if he’s sharing Junmyeon’s state of shock, except it’s not about RF but rather how quickly everything has been _ruined;_ he struggles to process his boyfriend crying in front of him _because_ of him.

“I _don’t even know_ what to think anymore.” Junmyeon breaks the eye contact as he sits up to get under his covers. He stares down at the blanket, shaking his head. “This… _you…_ RF’s going to _destroy_ Earth… she _killed_ them… them… it’s… _goodnight,_ Yixing.”

He turns his back to him and Yixing's stomach drops.

“No, Junmyeon,” He says but he doesn’t dare move. “I– I love you. I want to talk this out. We need to talk this out. Please. It’s not that I don’t love you– I do– it’s not that you did anything– it’s not you– absolutely nothing about you– it's me, it's all my fault, I’m just bad at– at being a good person. You–“

 _“Stop.”_ Junmyeon interrupts. He turns over to look up at him, his eyes glistening with woe and cheeks stained with shimmering water. “Just– please, stop. I… just need time. To process everything. Just– just leave me be, please.”

Junmyeon’s eyes flicker past him up to a window of something prettier and Yixing’s eyes are stinging by the time he turns back over.

“But… you just said earlier… communication… that we should talk… you said you were going to solve personal problems… _solve…”_ The dialogue comes out shaky as he stares at the grey comforter around his back.

_“Leave me alone.”_

It’s the first time Junmyeon _doesn’t_ want him.

A numb sensation permeates, something as if Yixing’s dreaming and this isn’t real. Through his back, returning to the metal wall. Through his hands, clasped around his knees. Through his legs, folded up to his chest. All he can see of the man across from him is the top of his black head. It feels wrong that he’s not touching it, touching him, petting him while he’s in his embrace. It’s not correct, the tension in the air, the lacuna between them. Junmyeon isn’t saying he loves him and that he’s beautiful, Junmyeon’s telling him to leave him alone and that he doesn’t trust him anymore.

And it’s unfair to be sad about it all, to blink tears away as he lays down and faces the opposite direction, because even from the beginning it was Junmyeon who had went after him. Junmyeon who talked to the poor panicked boy, giving reassurances and everything is going to be okay. Junmyeon who wove their bond through at first one-sided discourse. Junmyeon who comforted rather than scolded wrongdoings because his heart’s just that big. Junmyeon who trusted him. Junmyeon who kissed his neck. Junmyeon who went every which way to make sure Yixing knows he’s loved.

It’s the first time Junmyeon doesn’t treat him like the most precious thing in the universe. There's no one to blame but himself.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

He doesn’t know how much later it is when a beep startles him. On reflex, his wet eyes go to his wrist, but the screen is black. The noise is coming from the bed across.

Junmyeon’s wrist is splayed out of the blanket, bracelet flashing. Yixing sits up and crawls over, squinting at what looks like a notification:

 ** _MISSION 17399515:_** _[SUHO] + [LAY]_ to WATCH.

Once his eyes adjust to the brightness to read it – and he realizes that Junmyeon has begun to stir – Yixing dismisses the beep. His eyes trail up to Junmyeon’s sleeping face, the moonlight on his skin, his thick brows, his cheeks. He slowly draws closer to hover above him. Like this, it almost feels as if nothing had happened. Like he can reach his hand out and brush the bangs out of his forehead, the gentlest touch. Like he can lean down to…

_Drip._

Something circular and shiny lands on Junmyeon’s face and Yixing tears himself away, immediately pulling out the compartment and sliding on his shoes. A nervous glance tells him that Junmyeon is still asleep, he hadn’t noticed, his racing heart calms slightly.

Is this how it’s going to be from now on?

The thought continues as he exits the tent unit and situates himself on the left side of the door, gun in one hand and bandage on the other because he might as well try to get it back on. Switching his mic upwards to let RF know he’s here, he wipes the blurriness out of his eyes. Eventually, Junmyeon and him will make up, right? Kyungsoo too, right? Everybody will not hate him, right? Or will RF find everything out and kill all of them before there’s the chance?

They made a plan but Yixing couldn’t feel any more hopeless. He had thought siding with RF was right, siding with Kyungsoo was right, lying to Junmyeon was right; why should he think this plan is right? He has zero fucking idea what he’s doing. The tight fitted armor of Practicality has been forced onto so many different bodies that it’s useless now, it can be skewed to justify anything. Yixing told himself that it’s practical to stay with RF to have any chance of living and then that it’s practical to go back to Kyungsoo to have any chance of happiness. But he never had those chances at all, really. He’s lying and telling himself it’s reasonable so he’ll believe it, when in reality he’s in fucking space where he has not even logic to back him up, much less any people. He has ruined everything with everyone.

He’s defenseless. 

There’s always something wrong with what he does. He doesn’t mean to, he didn’t mean to, he never meant to. _Come on, Yixing, what to do now. How to solve this all. Best course of action. What you’re going to… do… say…_ It’s a perfect opportunity, out here for a three hour watch under the starlight where he can just sit and _think,_ but it won’t make a difference. It hadn’t last time or the several before.

Maybe he should stop trying to take action and accept the conclusion that’s been sitting pretty in front of him all along: they’re going to either attack RF or back out, either of which will determine how long Yixing has to live, and then he will die when RF fights back or when RF finally destroys Earth and disposes of the final humans.

That’s it. There’s nothing more to it.

Yixing doesn’t care to try to change this anymore. He gives up trying to weave the bandage under his wristband and lays down, letting go of the gun to move the mic and put a hand between his cheek and the cold ground. He doesn’t want to be here, either, so he goes somewhere else.

It’s a better place. Him, above a beige bed under an itchy quilt. Early morning sunlight beams through the cracks in the shades and the clerestory in the corner and aromas from the neighboring kitchen expose his consciousness. A gentle hand running through his hair, telling him to get up, she knows he’s awake. If he doesn’t cooperate he’ll be hurt, but it’s maybe not that painful anymore.

The kitchen’s disorganized with far too many things for a two-person household but his spot, on the far corner just to spite the claim that he sits too far away, is always clean. Maybe there’s orange fur on the cushion he puts there or maybe there’s an orange creature on the cushion he puts there that he has to move off. The coffee is too dark and sugarless to the point that it’s vomit-inducing but it goes down his throat as easy as air and it’s either a cereal bar or rice porridge or Get It Yourself. But in the kitchen there are two things that love him, one rubs its face against his leg and the other tells him to get the lint roller and says she won’t tolerate her son looking like a slob despite their living condition, but it’s maybe not that messy anymore.

The third person who loves him will spend time with him in either one’s living room. It used to be video games on the TV but now it pertains to the laptops and it usually lasts through the night on Discord with less than healthy foods and ends in the day getting scolded by another woman in her sixties because they’ve messed up their sleep schedule. They feel it after they return to school and share glances agonized with the ache of fatigue, but it’s maybe not that tiring anymore.

And then he’s on his couch, the one with the hole in the right arm, with the three things that love him with him. One’s on his lap demanding her white belly be pet and another’s got a brown jacket and one hand on his phone reading some psychology article and another on the belly and the third’s eyes through lenses are narrowed at what’s on his lap and maybe also has a hand around his ear for some reason, maybe yelling. And maybe it becomes a little dysfunctional because the one with the brown jacket doesn’t pet the fluffy stomach good enough and he gets attacked and then the one with the glasses is still yelling, but for some reason Yixing is still smiling because he’s oddly happy with the orange hair on his clothes and chaos in his ears. Maybe he’ll get the lint roller in a minute. And maybe he’ll have to snap back to the woman, though he doesn’t want his friend to go home, so maybe he shouldn’t. But no matter what happens it’s somewhere he’s supposed to be. It’s someone he’s supposed to–

_“Agent Lay!”_

Agent Lay jumps to attention, smacking his head against the black marble and pulling out his gun, is he going to be attacked? He’s not sure anyone would care.

“Calm down, Agent Lay. You are not in danger.” With nobody there, it sounds like the voice is coming from inside his head. His chest heaves up and down, slowly lowering the gun and relaxing his position.

“I was just going to ask you why you are crying on the mission. Did something happen? You have been muted the whole day. You switched on your mic ten minutes and thirty two seconds ago.”

Everything scrambles together and Yixing becomes aware that _RF_ is talking to him. The space above of forever night is still there and his face is wet and his neck aches where the mic was pressing into and everything is a little blurry and all of the feeling returns and Cat and Namjoon and Mother wash away into a worse reality. The stupor clenches something in his heart and Lay struggles to breathe, choking on a sob. Why isn’t he there? Why isn’t he somewhere he’s supposed to be? Why isn’t he someone he’s supposed to be? He shouldn’t have started to think about them. He can’t handle that. But he can’t handle this reality either. What does he do?

“Agent Lay, please calm down. I cannot solve the problem unless you tell me what is wrong. Why are you crying?”

And he truly, truly doesn’t know what happens, but the distinct voice clicks something and suddenly Yixing is transported back to a narrow hallway with dim yellow caged lights and the yellow and black stripes amongst the floor and ceiling. It has the red pool of blood that something black and charred is in and once his neck, draped down onto his chest because he’s so, _so_ exhausted, turns to it, everything constricts.

Maybe there’s so much blood that he’s drowning, maybe that’s it, that’s why his face is stained and eyes are wet and everywhere is soaked, but then why is his wrist suddenly burning again? Everything fogs and Yixing can’t tell what is real and what is not and he tears the half-on bandage off in a haste. What’s there? He can’t tell if he sees a dark red mark or skin burned to the bone, he can’t tell if he’s choking on tears or blood, he can’t tell if he’s dying or living; it’s too confusing and it’s too terrifying and something is squeezing his heart and it’s trying to beat so fast it gets out but then it’s just tighter. Yixing tries to get up and run away like he did when RD told him he wasn’t supposed to be here, that worked, but he can’t breathe and all that happens is he folds into himself.

But it’s just a memory. Why is it so bad it’s just a memory?

 _Agent Lay, you’re not supposed to be here._ Agent Lay covers his ears because if he can’t run away he’ll try to block it out. Why is it so _real?_ Why can’t he stop it no matter how hard he’s pushing on his ears, shaking his head _no_? It’s something attacking him from the outside, because he can feel it, crushing him, making him smaller and smaller until he’s nothing. But he’s safe in here. In his head. He’s safe in the nothing. Right? Right?

Yixing doesn’t want the nothingness but it’s what’s happening and everything contradicts; he can’t move yet he can’t stop trembling. He can’t speak yet he can’t stop whining. He can’t breathe yet he can’t stop crying.

“Agent Lay, are you experiencing a panic attack? I will assume so if you do not reply.”

Hopeless. It’s all so hopeless. A soulless voice in his ear telling him what to do, structures housing something he’s excluded from, and the silence and tranquility of space all around him like Zhang Yixing is the only entity in the universe.

“Agent Lay– _Yixing,_ I am here. You are not alone. Somebody is here. You are okay. Would you like me to wake somebody up? I can wake up Junmyeon. I can wake up Kyungsoo. Please try to breathe steadily.”

And the golden sheep who’s loved by three things and maybe more a little while ago is in the place he’s excluded from so Yixing’s not quite sure who’s breaking down.

“Yixing, please talk to me. You can tell me what is wrong. I am going to wake up Junmyeon, he will–“

 _“No.”_ At last, Yixing manages to speak. After the word, the faded barrier between horror and reality stalls and slowly begins to solidify again. He grounds himself in speech, half-muffled with his cheek against the frigid ground, “No– no… I… do not get… wait…”

“I will wait, Yixing.” Comes an immediate response. “Feel free to talk to me when you are ready.”

As his heart begins to slow down from the climax and what was crushing him loosens up, a wave of another kind of horridness crashes over him. He’s _pathetic._ It’s all his fault that everything has happened the way it has yet he curls up into a ball and shakes and cries like he’s not a grown man. He’s lost control of his mind and his body attacks itself and he sobs like it’s not his fault, like it’s not simply consequences of his actions.

Thank _god_ nobody sees him like this. They’re all sound asleep.

The scariest part is how there are no gunshots around him, there are no weapons swinging at him and no enemies with knives at his throat and no projectiles grazing his head yet he’s fallen this far apart.

It’s a couple more minutes before Yixing is able to sit himself up on an arm and try to rationalize. A panic attack. That’s what it was. Though it felt like he was going to die. But he can’t do anything to prevent it, he did get burned and he did mess everything up with everybody and he cannot sleep so the only hope of coping is bringing himself back to the wall and talking; staying grounded in reality. He lifts a hand up to the fuzz of the mic and finds the switch already at the top.

 _“Please…”_ His voice cracks and he clears his throat. “Please… Please go away. Leave me alone. Please… Please help me. I’m so alone.”

The plead to the very thing that got him into all of this registers, but everything’s so hopeless so why does it matter if he’s even more pathetic? _Pathetic,_ the word repeats in his head as he uses the tent wall to help himself stand, running hands through his hair until it stays back.

“You are not alone, Yixing. I am here. Your members are here. Again, would you like me to go wake somebody? They will help you.”

“No.” Yixing shakes his head and all of his hair returns to how it was. “They…” He shakes his head again, slumping against the wall and sinking back to a sit. He doesn’t know how long it was ago but the scenes replay in his head, Kyungsoo telling him he can’t do anything right with tears in his eyes and Sehun and Jongdae glaring at him, everyone glaring at him.

“I just… I just wanna go home… where people love me… where I’m not a burden…” His eyes well with tears. He doesn’t know why he’s confiding in the robot, he’s not fully sentient, but it’s the only thing he has left, the only thing that responds and keeps him away from the empty reality.

“Are you suggesting the people here do not love you and think you are a burden? That is not true, Yixing.”

“Yes it is. They’ve made it clear enough.” _Leave me alone. Can’t you do_ one _fucking thing right?!_ The panic is replaced with a sadness just as overwhelming; he doesn’t really know where to go from here. If he’ll even be happy again between now and when he dies.

“Yixing, you and I are similar. We can both read bodies, you can hear words and decipher facial expressions, I can track heartbeats per minute and sense endorphin release, but, remember, we cannot read minds… Did something happen today? Evidently, something has. However, your mic has been deactivated up until nineteen minutes and fifty eight seconds ago.”

“They hate me… they’re so mean to me…” Yixing can’t remember if RF had asked a question. There’s too much going on in his head and it’s so hard to discern what it even is. “It– it shouldn’t hurt this much… I should have seen it coming… I deserve it, too… but it just… RF, it hurts so much. It– it– everyone has something I’m not a part of– I’ll never be a part of– I didn’t know exclusion could be so bad until there’s only nine people left… eight and one people left…”

“You are not excluded. Yixing, please, tell me what happened. I cannot help solve the problem unless you tell me what specifically happened to cause your current state of emotion. Everything stays between you and me. You said, quote unquote, 'they're so mean to me'. Were you harassed? I will put an end to any harassment immediately.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Yixing sniffles, wiping his nose on his sleeve and his sleeve on his pants. “I don’t– there’s no fixing– I don’t care to fix… I just… want to give up. Stop trying to convince me otherwise. You hate me too. I’m a burden to you too. I’m– I’m a burden to this whole fucking thing– even myself– everybody hates me including me and– and _fuck…”_ He bursts into tears again. It’s contradictory, as crying makes him even more pathetic, yet all he can do about it is cry. They just made a plan. The plan to destroy RF and go back to Earth. So why is he at a dead end now? Why is it like there’s nothing beyond this breakdown and time stops here?

“I am not capable of hatred but even if I were I would not hate you. Yixing, it seems you have only gotten worse and worse. Do you need a break? I can suspend your schedule and lighten the workload when you are back from the mission.”

“No.” He doesn’t want to think about future obligations. He doesn’t want to go anywhere beyond this empty night.

“I may override your choice if this mental state persists.”

“Then why didn’t you offer _before?”_ RF obviously made it a point of hers to get him to this state yet now she’s trying to calm him down… it’s overwhelmingly tempting to trust her, the office desk lady’s soothing voice, she’s the only one that’s nice to him, the only one that cares about him, maybe if he just follows her orders he can be happy?

_No. You already went through this. It doesn’t work. Don’t trust RF. RF doesn’t care._

“Because now I have no reason to distrust you. Correct?”

“No… nobody should trust me.” _Leave me alone._ “RF, Jun-Junmyeon– we– we got into a… Cause– cause I lied to him a lot… and now– now he found out– and now… now there’s nobody…”

“I am sorry, Yixing. At the very least, if I am interpreting this correctly and you had lied to him on several occasions and it was exposed, you will not have to lie to him any further. Though Agent– Junmyeon is a very sensitive person, especially in the sense of gaslighting.” _Gaslighting…_ christ, he’s not _abusive_. He’s not. Is he? Why does she use _that_ word? He’s not a monster. Is he? He didn’t mean to, he never meant to. “And especially in the sense of someone he loves. So, through this, I do worry you will experience difficulty regaining trust.”

“I know. I fucking _know.”_ Yixing’s hand clenches on the gun. “But it’s fine.” And releases. “I’m not going to try. I’m not even going to fucking try anymore. It’s not…” He looks to the vast expanse, freedom taunting him as much as the robot’s kind words. Everything reaches out hands towards him and it almost makes him think they won't tear it away when he makes a grab.

“RF… If I just left. Ran away. Would you make them come after me? Or would you let me…” The word comes out uncomfortable. “Die?” He doesn’t want to die, but right now he really can’t find anything else. He can’t go home. He can’t leave this place. All that’s left is suffering until oblivion, so why not make the oblivion sooner?

“I would make them come after you, Yixing.”

 _“Why?_ I’m not even useful to you. I can’t use my power. You’ve gotten along fine without a healer anyway. I can’t do any of my work right. _Literally_ all I’ve done for you is make your job harder. And for everyone else… well, they’ve already gotten through three deaths, they can one more. It’d be a relief anyway.” It almost sounds reasonable, except for the part where Yixing would actually be absolutely terrified to run away and fend for himself until he slowly rots away. All of this yet he _still_ is afraid.

“If you continue to express concerning sentiments, I will have to wake one of the other agents.”

“No. Don’t. _Don’t.”_ Yixing hand comes off the gun and he kicks it out of his reach. “I’m not doing anything. No one can see me like this. Don’t. Don’t. Why are you even taking this seriously? I’m just talking nonsense.”

“And _I’m_ just looking out for my Agent.”

“Well, your agent is fine now. Thanks. Goodnight.” Yixing brings his hand up to the mic, but the robot replies and the motion stalls.

“I am only trying to help. Our relationship is one of mutualism, not parasitism. I will–“ As the feminine voice continues, anger flares, and Yixing doesn’t think twice before he disregards shutting it off, instead bringing his hands up to his ears and yanking the two cords with all his might.

All that happens is pain exploding from both sides of his head, as if he had just had his ears yanked off. A cry escapes him and he presses his palms to the spot, trying to alleviate the burning. Why would he do that?! Why did he do that?!

“–and in order to… Yixing, why did you just try to do that? I do not appreciate the technology being damaged.”

Yixing grits his teeth as the voice now _hurts._ “Why isn’t it… why isn’t it…”

“Breaking?” RF prompts. Yixing whines something of a _yes_ as he holds his head, curling down into a huddle.

Each chop of RF’s laugh sends another spike of pain through his skull. Yixing’s quickly reduced to tears again and it's almost as if something other than his head begins to burn. 

“Why, _practicality purposes,_ I suppose.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god I never meant for it to get this intense I really don't know what happened this was just supposed to be a stupid romcom...
> 
> But here we are so😁
> 
> Okay but also like I swear guys it will have a happy ending like I see some of y'all losing hope but don't!!! Don't lose hope just cause yixing does you copycat
> 
> But on some more serious notes... I think this argument has definitely been the most telling as to Junmyeon's character flaws (which yes he does in fact have– they're just not so obvious like for example Baekhyun's arrogance). Any thoughts on why he didn't exactly give Yixing the scolding he merited? Or, rather, kept apologizing profusely through it? Do you think Yixing's response was the right one? What path will SuLay's relationship take from here?
> 
> And Yixing, the next scene... yikes... did you expect him to open up to RF? If so/if not, why? Other thoughts?


	51. The Final Stretch (of the Mission He's Not Like Dying Yet)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yixing musters through the final stretch of the mission to be caught by surprise upon return to the Pod.

**YIXING IS PRETTY SURE** he had managed a couple hours of sleep between the end of his watch and when RF screamed _AGENTS!_ in the community channel (and also he can’t wake up if he hadn’t fallen asleep), but he just can’t quite remember anything that had happened after maybe the middle of his watch. He wonders when his brain will just stop working.

To exacerbate this, Yixing had also been woken in a deeper part of the sleep cycle, meaning he’s even _more_ tired. This he realizes after Junmyeon taps him on the shoulder and he drifts back into consciousness with one hand on his untied shoelace and another crushed around the foil cube of breakfast.

“We’re…” It’s still Junmyeon with Junmyeon’s gentle voice and Junmyeon’s concerned eyes, but there’s a barrier of tension so opaque in his hesitance, his wording. The words he doesn’t say. “We’re about to start searching, again.” As compared to yesterday’s _goodmorning, my sweet handsome– ouch, Sehun!_ “So we’ve got to close up the tent…” How does it change so fast?

Slumped against the wall with no motivation to move, Yixing just looks to his feet, one fit with a half-tied shoe, his belt that’s on but not tightened, bullets falling out of their pockets, the almost white particles of the food sprinkled on the bed, and then back up to Junmyeon. The eye contact gives him the same jittery feeling as always, but it’s stinted knowing that what used to be exchanged in glances: trust, contentedness, affection, is no longer there.

Junmyeon breaks eye contact first and the jittery feeling is replaced by something heavy. He turns around and Yixing realizes that he’s all geared up. Junmyeon stalls for a moment, fingers curling and coming together in front of him as if debating whether or not to do something, and Yixing notices and prays he’ll do this something as long as it isn’t murdering him, but he instead does nothing and he’s gone within two _woosh_ es of the door.

Despite the action giving him even more reason to just sit here until the end of time, Yixing gets up. A groan emits when the motion pains him, and maybe sleeping upright against a metal wall wasn’t the smartest. He doesn’t know what made him decide to do that as he doesn’t even remember when he had fallen asleep (though he does remember four paragraphs ago when this had been already mentioned). His whole body feels a strange tingle of exhaustion, the type after a breakdown that he also can't quite remember that well, as he puts on his shoes and jacket, fixing his hair out of his eyes and finishing the cube despite the lack of hunger.

When he exits out to the group, Yixing takes solace in the abnormal: the fact that everyone else is acting in a manner similar to Junmyeon. The first thing he notices is the lack of noise, as people are actually speaking in _normal tones of voices,_ and then he also notices the lack of the usual mirth or joking around. Jongdae’s lips aren’t in some kind of mischievous smile, Jongin’s eyes are half shut, Chanyeol’s not paying the slightest attention to the cat mewling and scratching at his arms; everyone’s general demeanor represents something like _Kyungsoo_. It isn’t something severely depressive, like a funeral, but it’s definitely a change from the normal atmosphere. So Junmyeon’s state isn’t _completely_ Yixing’s fault. It’s also the fault of being told your life – for the last couple abducted years – is all a lie and your leader killed your friends and will now kill everything else you’ve ever known and it’s all up to you to stop it. Though realizing the love of your life has been lying to you and exploiting you for happiness for the last month has also got to be a bummer. 

Isn’t this suspicious? He wonders. It’s strange that with a mere addition of knowledge, no one’s doing what they did a day or so ago and poking fun of Yixing for god-knows-what. In fact, he’s completely ignored as he steps away from the tent unit so Junmyeon can close it up and give it to Kyungsoo. Said Kyungsoo is the only one who pays him any mind (but not words) as he hands him a familiar set of gloves, a fork, goggles, and a capsule.

Yixing takes inquiry to Kyungsoo’s attitude as he gives a “Thank you,” upon eye contact. Kyungsoo just turns away and he’s got his answer.

“Agents!” RF chirps in greeting. “You have been on Mission 17399515 for forty-seven hours and counting.” It’s felt like a _year._ Especially with the amount of chapters. “For the next period of twelve hours, you will search around Base 2 for SE_1. I expect it to be found within this time slot. If not, you will relocate yourselves and look further. You will search in a circumferential manner in relation to Base 2. Because of this, I expect smaller groups and more area to be covered.”

A dismiss of _Proceed… that means go ahead, Agent Kai_ and relief washes through Yixing, because quite frankly, there’s absolutely nobody here he wants to go with except for the space kitty but the space kitty’s with Chanyeol who’s next to Kyungsoo and Baekhyun and an area Yixing is not going to go near.

It’s a little nerve-wracking turning around and simply _leaving_ all by himself, especially considering the chance of encountering more rock-beetles, but the pure solitude is far more refreshing than he had thought when he’s not having a mental breakdown. He’s not within a twenty foot, fifty foot, hundred foot, one, two _mile_ radius of anybody else, of any confrontation, ostracization; it's so _liberating._ Sore muscles from the awkward sleeping position mean nothing when Yixing has the freedom to distance himself from everything under an excuse he won’t be condemned for, that RF won’t send them after him for, and it’s only a mere forty-five minutes before RF comes and says:

“Agent Lay, you have distanced four point two miles away from any other Agent. This is far enough. Please orient your focus on search.”

He’s pretty sure it’s in the private channel because nobody says anything after that, but it’s a good thing. Stopping himself, he looks up and scales the mauve terrain to find light coming from one of the pathways. He follows it to discover there’s some sort of ledge upwards, or at least something he will be out in the open on. It takes his hands to get up a rather steep part, but once Yixing reaches the top he’s rewarded with a vast view. Albeit a little blurry, he’s able to see what must be miles of the strangely sculped land. It looks kind of like a purple swiss cheese but twice the holes. Wonder what kind of mold purple is. If there even is purple mold. He doesn’t remember.

And for a minute or so, Yixing lets it sink in that he’s standing on a planet in a galaxy too far from Earth to even fathom its existence. The cool air is absolutely still and hugs tight around his body like a second skin.

However, something else suddenly sinks in. Something white that lands on his nose and then dissolves and Yixing looks up and realizes it’s fucking _snowing._

And you know what? Maybe The Universe _is_ an all-powerful conscious entity and maybe it _does_ in fact have it out for Zhang Yixing.

His mind that had been strangely clear for the last hour (had been in a fatigue-induced yet miraculously mobile coma for the last hour) is immediately put back on the immediates. He returns to the cave system where there is no snow and as he’s absently staring at the stone walls because he should at least _pretend_ he’s looking for SE_1, he’s back to thinking. This time it’s not a total breakdown and he can process coherently.

Does everyone else truly believe they can stop RF? Truly believe what Kyungsoo said? Do they truly believe that they’ll destroy her with blunt force and then they’ll drive the spaceship back home? What was it Yixing was seeing this morning? Silence of hope, doubt, sadness, or fear? Or, rather, given they don’t all share the same opinion, which one the most?

For Yixing, it’s last three. Believing they’ll destroy the robot leader who can shock them to death with a single command in her system and then _somehow_ travel back to Earth is too fantastical. There’s too much wrong with it.

Although he doesn’t doubt if all eight of them attacked RF at once with their powers they’d be able to demolish the technology, he doesn’t think there’d be any way to bring the technology such a vulnerable position. It’s a matter of timing, in which two seconds Chanyeol can blast a fireball but one second RF can trigger an electrocution so strong he’d die before he could even bring his hands up.

And even given the fairy-tale that they achieved this (and maybe a fourth or fifth death of EXO to make it a bit more realistic), it’s not too viable to travel back to Earth, either. For one, Yixing still remembers the recruitment wormhole from this area to Earth Chanyeol had talked about: how the _aliens_ had created it for them. The aliens who are in support of RF and therefore are in support of Vermillion and what he plans to do. It makes sense now: aliens have never visited Earth because they have a hand in its planned destruction. Therefore, even if they did usurp EXO’s crown, it wouldn’t be long before the other societies found out and simply carried out the rest of the job for RF.

And even given _without_ the alien intervention, there’s still so little possibility that the nine (or whatever number) of them would be able to figure out how to get back to planet Earth. Nobody here is a rocket scientist. Yes, maybe they could learn, like Chanyeol had said, but it would still take so long, without even the promise of a positive result, but it would still… he doesn’t know.

He doesn’t know.

Fuck, maybe it is all possible. Yixing couldn’t fathom being in space. Yixing couldn’t fathom saving the universe. Yixing couldn’t fathom having a power. Yixing couldn’t fathom having a boyfriend. Yixing couldn’t fathom (RF and) RF burning him. Yixing couldn’t fathom RF killing three past members. Every single one of those things have been proved fathomable and right now, it’s Yixing can’t fathom beating RF and going home. Every time he tries to think realistically the most unrealistic thing happens, but when he tries the converse of this and tries to think Junmyeon and Kyungsoo will forgive him and everyone else will go back to liking him again, reality slaps him upside the head.

It’s all so tiring. Yixing _really_ would have rather remained in a peaceful – albeit, now seemingly boring – life working a full-time job at a pet shop and being yelled at by his mother every day because there's nothing special about him.

What _would_ his mother say were she here right now?

Yixing had sworn to himself somewhere a couple weeks in that he’s glad the wretched bat’s out of his life and he’ll never think about her again, but after everything that's happened he's just too tired to stick to his own rules anymore. He's been so dazed all day he's forgotten what half of them even are. 

Of course, he doesn’t actually see it, he’s not hallucinating _quite_ yet, but he tries his best to imagine the woman sitting in the unbelievable setting just like he is. She’s sitting up straight against the stone wall, eyes narrowed at her son because he flops down and curls into a ball as if he has no manners. If she made a contemptuous remark about it, Yixing would tell her she could be mauled by a stone. That would be funny. Unless she thought he was lying and hit him. That wouldn’t be funny. It also wouldn’t be funny if she was actually mauled by a stone.

She isn’t a particularly intelligent woman, she will never be one of those old people that the children look up to with stars in their eyes and treasure their every word like scripture, but Yixing would still ask what to do. She would probably say to tough it out because she has Toughed It Out a lot. Yixing would tell her he’s going to die unhappy no matter what so he should just find the quickest way to do so. She’d hit him. He’d either hit her back or make some rude retort that gets him hit again. It’d probably escalate from there…

Yeah, it wouldn’t really be anything productive.

But it would be nice to see her. A similar ache of last night comes and Yixing runs away from it, digging himself deeper into the delusion. He thinks to the most comfortable time he can remember and tries to go there. It was when he was sixteen or something and his mother had drank a little so she wasn’t as uptight as always. Yixing was wiped after a day and a half of straight CSGO and Minecraft and everything buzzed with that exhaustion of being sat in the same five positions for more than twenty-four hours. His mother was lying on the couch and he decided to join, which was warmly accepted. Maybe he was practically crushing her, but she still rubbed her soft middle-aged lady hands up and down his arms and through his hair which was really nice. And then Cat came and curled up on his chest and vibrated and was warm and soft which was also really nice. It was all really nice.

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

_“Yah, wake up…”_

_“Yixing… get up…”_

_“Hyung,_ seriously…”

“–Are you dead or something?”

Conscious protrudes in the form of pressure on the side of his leg, the part right above his knee. There’s mumbling, but when Yixing becomes aware enough to make coherent sentences he decides he doesn’t want to listen and turns away. He puts a hand out a hand to stop the foot and then it stops and he is content.

For about five seconds until there’s a yank to his ear.

_“Yah!”_ Yixing’s reflexes sit him straight up with his fists ready to spar his mother. He doesn’t know what happened but god dammit he _knew_ he shouldn’t have trusted her! It wasn’t too a hard a tug, but there’s the lingering pain from last night when he had tried to rip off his comm unit and now it’s burning.

“Hell’s wrong with you?!” Probably isn’t the nicest thing to yell at his mother, nor the safest, but Yixing soon realizes it’s not his mother and it’s instead that intimidating face with the sharp eyebrows standing above him, arms crossed.

“Why are you _sleeping_ on the mission?”

Sehun looks rather threatening looking down at him, so Yixing gets up. Sehun’s still looking down at him (and his expression makes him think also _on_ him), but at least he can’t step on him now. Yixing looks around and wait, when did he fall _asleep?_ And he _wasn’t_ mauled by a stone during it? Why?

“Um,” He blinks dumbly, hand going up to scratch his head. His answer is mended with a yawn, though he does feel considerably less exhausted. _“I–dunnoh.”_

“You _don’t know?_ It’s been _seven hours.”_ Ah. Perhaps that’s why. “And RF made me come _all_ the way out here to get you afraid that you had gotten hurt or something. But no. You’re just _sleeping.”_

Sehun’s tone is scrutinous (and if Yixing notices that compared to what’s normal, then it’s _very_ scrutinous) and Yixing realizes it’s _only_ him and Sehun. There doesn’t seem to be anyone else around the corner or nearby. Sehun looks rather vexed and also rather threatening. But Yixing’s not scared of a sixteen-year-old. He’s not. He’s just taking a step back because personal space.

Apparently Yixing takes too long to say something, because there’s a scoff and then, “So now you’re napping in the middle of missions. On top of gaslighting Junmyeon.”

Oh. So it’s _this._

It’s the same word choice as RF, Yixing notices: _gaslighting_. He told himself RF had used it for rhetoric purposes, to make him feel worse, but now that Sehun says it… is this what everyone thinks of him? That he’s a manipulative asshole? It’s not true. Yixing’s strange and maybe he’s a little mean sometimes but he’s not that kind of person. He’s not who Kyungsoo’s saying he is; conceited, selfish. He’s not. Right?

“I…” Did Junmyeon tell him everything that had happened? All the details? _Why?_ “No. I was sleeping, yeah, but not that. We just… have had a lot of misunderstandings.”

He wishes.

Sehun doesn’t buy it. “Yeah, sure, _misunderstandings._ I’m not stupid, Yixing. I know when things happen. What the _hell_ did you do to him?”

What does that mean? _Do_ to him? What did Junmyeon say? Did Junmyeon _say_ anything? But no matter where Sehun has gotten this, Yixing is really _not_ keen on sharing his relationship struggles.

“It’s none of your business, Sehun. That’s between me and him. We’ll fix it.”

He hopes.

Sehun interprets this as, “So you did hurt him.”

“Again.” Yixing grimaces, “It’s _private_. I’ve made mistakes and I’m going to try to fix them," He remembers saying last night that nothing was worth fixing, that he was giving up, but now things are numb enough that he can at least say it out loud and sort of accept the possibility, "but it’s none of your concern.”

“I’m Junmyeon’s _best friend._ It _is_ my concern.” He takes a threatening step closer and then Yixing’s back is against the cave wall so all he can do is just feel smaller. Sehun says slowly, but not any less menacingly, _“Tell me_ what you did.”

Suddenly, Yixing identifies a weakness. It almost sounds as if Sehun is trying to assure himself. And why would he be asking Yixing if Junmyeon hadn’t told him?

“If it was your concern, Junmyeon would have told you himself.”

The weakness manifests when Sehun’s expression twitches, furrowed brows unhinging from anger and eyes widening in just the slightest such that Yixing can only see it because he’s so close.

With the small victory, he continues. He says what he’s been waiting to say ever since Sehun eyed him on the couch in Exoplanet. _You seem very… confident…_

“Listen, I– I get that you’re protective, but stop acting like you have authority over a relationship that isn’t yours. Respect privacy, get over whatever jealousy you're dealing with, and _stop_ asking me about it. Now what have I missed?” It comes out mercilessly, and maybe it hurts Sehun, but what’s the point if everyone here dislikes Yixing anyway?

It takes a minute for Sehun to absorb. His face falters in that same manner a bit further. For a moment, Yixing thinks that he chastises, that he was strict enough for Sehun to hang his head with a _sorry, Hyung._ Because of this, he is especially frightened when, contrary to his anticipation, Sehun lurches forward, grabbing his collar and pinning him to the cave wall.  
  
 _"Respect privacy? Jealousy?"_ The raw fury in his face scares Yixing ten times more, "You're fucking _hurting_ him! This isn't a matter of–"

_“Get off!”_ With all of his might and the assistance of adrenaline, Yixing shoves him. Sehun stumbles backwards and trips, falling back on the stone. What must be his tailbone makes a sound which must hurt _really_ bad, but right now isn’t the time for sympathy.

_“Don’t_ touch me.” Yixing’s voice wavers as if he didn't hurt Junmyeon and Sehun's not justified in what he's doing, as if he didn't shove him off just because he didn't want to face the truth. He looks around the cave, for a route of escape. He doesn’t know if Sehun’s going to hurt him, but he does know Sehun has motive to. Where is everyone else, anyway? What time is it? What’s seven hours after…?

When he looks back, Sehun is still on the ground. His expression is scrunched in what must be pain and despite it not being him who initiated the fight, the image of Sehun holding his and Junmyeon’s hands close while he sleeps comes and brings a wave of guilt. Yixing kneels down, careful to not get to close.

“Sehun, I’m sor–“

“I HATE YOU!” Sehun shouts, voice suddenly full of emotion that wasn’t there before. Ever before. “I hate you! You’re ruining _everything!_ You– you– it was _so much_ better before you got here! None of this would’ve happened if you just didn’t come! You’ve ruined it all! I hope you’re the _first_ one to die if this whole thing goes wrong! I hope you–“

_“HAI!”_ All of the sudden, a booming voice sounds in his ears. It’s Chanyeol. The scene pauses, Yixing’s stomach dropping and Sehun’s chest heaving. “Hi guys! I got it! Finally got it! I got the SE!”

“Nice!” Minseok enters the channel, followed by Jongdae and Junmyeon and Kyungsoo. In contrast to this morning, they all sound animated.

“My god, _finally!”_

“Good job!”

“Let’s all meet. Base two. I’m starving.”

“Yeah, me too!” Chanyeol giggles. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”

“Literally four us are already there~” Baekhyun laughs. Jongin’s voice immediately follows and blends as if they were talking into the same mic, which was probably what had happened with Jongdae and Junmyeon as well.

“So _you’re_ going to be the rotten egg, Channie!”

“No, cause I found it. I get exemption.”

“No you–“

RF comes in with a strict, “Agents. On task, only. But if you insist: the last one there will receive a rotten egg flavored supplement. Yes, Agent D.O, those are packed, just like every other mission. Your complaints have changed nothing. They are an effective means of motivation.”

“Aha!”

After Jongin’s exclamation, the channel goes silent. The play button is pressed and Yixing realizes everything Sehun just said.

“I– I wish you _never_ came.” He finishes, scooting back and, with some effort, it looks, standing up. The spite, the raw anger, the honesty in his voice is what stabs at Yixing, so much that he doesn’t care about the rotten egg flavored supplement anymore and just watches Sehun limp out, jaw dropped…

How could he say that?

He stays a little longer, immediately rushing to comfort because he’s the only one he has left and telling, almost scolding, himself: _Sehun’s just angry, what he thinks doesn’t reflect what everyone thinks, Sehun has always been like this and it’s just amplified because of the situation, because he was injured, he's just a bratty kid, don't take it seriously._

_It doesn't hurt. I don't care. Fuck him._

▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰

Sehun’s how he normally is, arms around Junmyeon clinging onto him and maybe talking in his ear. Does Junmyeon know what he had said?

_I hate you! You’re ruining everything! It was so much better before you got here! None of this would’ve happened if you just didn’t come! You’ve ruined it all! I hope you’re the first one to die if this whole thing goes wrong!_

It’s one of those things like what Baekhyun had said way back on his first mission: one of those things that Yixing remembers with one hundred percent clarity and can’t get out of his head. And here he thought he couldn’t feel any worse. He knows Sehun’s words are not the attitude of everyone else here, and he keeps reminding himself this, but it doesn’t help that he’s virtually ignored. He’s the last one back to the base and there isn’t one person that makes fun of him for it. Nor does anyone – Kyungsoo – give him anything to eat, but he figures he’d pass on a rotten egg flavored cube anyway.

The separation reminds Yixing of high school. More specifically, at times where everyone was just idle, forming their own groups. Yixing was never a social anxiety induced loner, he just opted out of having many friends. And because he chose it, he didn’t mind being the sole singular unit in an area of only groups. Here, however, where Yixing actually cares about the people and wants them to like him, he does mind. But it’s not the sort of minding where he’ll do something about it, it’s the sort of minding that just makes him sad. He sits at a rock about ten feet away from the closest group of Chanyeol and Jongdae and Junmyeon and Sehun and plays with his shoelaces. The talk is closer to normal, with laughter and the sharp sounds of slaps. Plus the meows every couple seconds. They sound like Cat when she was Kitten (if Yixing’s name could change, why couldn’t Cat’s?).

Will it continue like this? He wonders. This kind of exclusion? Perhaps it’s been there all along, but it didn’t bother him then as it does now; now, when Yixing’s excluded not because _he_ does it on purpose, but because _everyone else_ does it on purpose because they dislike him. Is he ever going to make up with them? Kyungsoo, Junmyeon, Baekhyun, Sehun? (And how do the rest feel about him…?) Or has he ruined the relationships for the rest of time and it’ll never be like it was, because before they thought Yixing was a good person but now they know who he really is? Does this clear disparity of love between everyone and him, the eight and one, make things awkward? Is Sehun right? _Does_ he ruin everything? Does he intrude on that bond built through years and an experience that absolutely nobody outside can enter?

_It’s been that way all along._ Yixing only gets it through his head now when the subliminal manifests in a physical form where they talk in groups and Yixing sits a couple feet away, listening but never joining. It makes sense. It will continue like this for however much longer he’s going to live.

Untimely, AKA when he accomplishes getting both of his shoes tied to each other, RF comes in the channel.

“Agents! The Pod is arriving. You will all share one. Please enter and place your weapons and collecting gear in the depositories at the doors.”

Yixing looks up from his laces to realize there’s the giant black sphere _right_ there, devoid of any shadow or refraction. He hadn’t heard anything, yet here it is, door slowly lowering like a drawbridge. That at least makes a noise.

It takes a rushed thirty seconds of pulling his laces apart and tucking them into the sides of his shoes before he gets up. His stomach growls at the movement. Would it be weird if he asked RF for something to eat? Looking back, he sees Chanyeol carrying the kitten. Is she going to let him keep it? If so, Yixing would think that they’d have other pets around the ship by now. It doesn’t seem Chanyeol displays any hesitance about it, though. Is it because he knows they have a plan, and then there will be no RF to tell him he can’t keep it?

_Jongdae,_ Yixing remembers when he steps in line behind the guy on the ramp to return his weapons, is supposed to ask RF to go to Exoplanet. Given his lack of urgency, he’s just snickering with Baekhyun about something, Yixing assumes he has already done it. Probably through the private channel. So now they must be heading back to Exoplanet, except there Yixing probably won’t have to suffer more sleepless nights because they’ll destroy RF or something. Or they’ll all die and Yixing won’t have to worry about anything ever again because he will be dead.

As he ascends the ramp, he takes one last look back at planet #1563. He’ll never see this place again, yet he had some of his most… _climatic_ moments here. That is going to be strange. On Earth, he’d have different feelings for different places too. Such as his bed for comfort, or his mother’s room for imminent danger. But he has always been able to go to such places; they are all on the same planet. Now, however, he is spreading his experiences all over the _universe._ It’s cool for the maybe three seconds he thinks about it.

He luckily does not trip, but he does walk into Jongdae, who for some reason has stopped. He mutters an apology, looking over his shoulder to see what he’s staring at.

The interior is different, but he can’t process any of that right now because at the end of the room hovers RF. Right there. In the pod. In all her ten-foot glory. Is this normal?

Apparently not, because Jongdae asks, “RF? What’re you doing here?”

A chill runs down Yixing's spine.

“Well, Agent Chen, you wanted to stop at Exoplanet, did you not? And _somebody_ needs to make sure you do not run wild.” His question is answered and the bad feeling disperses into prickles of anxiety. Also, RF wouldn't talk about what happened last night with everyone here, right? “We will make our stop through this Pod, you, you alone, not you with Agent Hyunee, not you with Agent Xiumin, _you_ –“ (“Alright, jeesh, I get it,”) “–can collect what you need, and then we will return to Exoship. Sit down, Agents.”

Yixing looks around the Pod. Unlike the others he has been in, this one is all open. It doesn’t have a hallway or walls but is rather one big room. He then finds what she was referring to: there are two sections of six seats, each strapped to parallel walls. They face each other and have seatbelts and safety straps. Does this mean they’re going to be flipped upside down?

It doesn’t seem the others think it’s too out of the ordinary, so he lets himself relax as he drops his gun and the knives in the bucket. He has half a mind to remove his belt, too, but he’s ushered into the room before he gets the chance.

“K on the left, M on the right. _Your_ left and right. Age order with the oldest closest to me, excluding absences in between… It is not very hard. Please hasten.” RF resumes a frozen Yixing, who was holding up about half the line again.

It still makes him nervous to be close to the robot, but at least little strong Minseok’s between them. To his left is Jongdae and then Sehun another seat down (with the fifth and sixth empty). Junmyeon, like Minseok, is also closest to RF. Baekhyun’s across from Yixing and then it’s Chanyeol and Kyungsoo and Jongin. Everybody seats without a problem, but Yixing senses a divide. Half of the room talks quietly with timid glances around the room. The likes of Junmyeon, Chanyeol, Jongin; it’s only natural they’d be a little awkward unexpectedly faced with the robot dictator they’re planning to kill in a couple hours.

On the other hand, Baekhyun, Jongdae, and Minseok are fooling around as if nothing’s wrong. Baekhyun helps Jongdae to his seat to then drag a hand up his chest and undo the first button of his shirt, saying something that makes Jongdae laugh but Minseok yank him by his collar and shove him to the K side where he continues to make faces at Jongdae while focusing on his buckles. They almost seem _too_ comfortable to have believed it. Jongdae and Minseok hadn't talked much last night, so perhaps they never bought it in the first place, but Baekhyun had talked much more than the current nervous looking-ones… but they all had looked taken aback at his scar...

Yixing wonders what he’ll do during this battle. Throw a rock? Act as reluctant bait? Sit and give sympathies if someone’s injured? Dead? Or will they all pussy out?

The line of light slowly angles and shrinks as the ramp closes upwards, the boxes of their equipment nowhere to be seen. It’s a couple seconds before Yixing can no longer see the night sky and it’s just the dimly lit Pod. Though the lights are bright and fluorescent, they’re sparsely placed in the four corners and the center, leaving sharp shadows and deep tones.

“You are awfully quiet, Agents.” RF comments. Yixing’s heart speeds up. 

“Well, RF,” Junmyeon comes in with a dry chuckle, “these– these straps are a little difficult. I can’t seem to…”

“Why aren’t they opening?” Jongin tugs at the strap at the bicep.

“Maybe you’re not actually supposed to wear them, stupids.” Jongdae crosses his legs and looks smugly across to the K row. Yixing hadn’t even tried to put them on, but now that he tries, he does notice the buckles are stuck.

“Ooh! If we’re doing B-D-S-M, let me dom!” Baekhyun raises his hand like an enthusiastic school child. “I’m a great showman! And also get the children out of here. They can see this when they’re older. Except Jongin.”

Minseok scoffs. “You’re disgusting.”

“Oh _Minnie,”_ Baekhyun moans the name, “It’s _so_ hot when you degrade me. Please, say it again, call me your disgusting little–“

“My mistake.” RF interrupts. “Let me assist.”

And suddenly, Yixing’s _trapped._

It all happens within a couple seconds that the harness he had sat on jerks, two sides tugging out from under his lap and clicking and tightening. Adrenaline bursts as his hands fly forwards to undo it, but then his arms are yanked back too. A terrified glance to his side shows two bands together over his bicep, keeping him against the back of the chair. Straps spring and tighten over his wrists, and just when Yixing didn’t think he could be any more petrified, the rough fabric _solidifies into metal_ in front of his very eyes. A black is replaced with a dark grey that isn’t as kind, squeezing his arms and wrists and ankles and sparing no mercy to anything down low.

His arms touch Minseok’s and Jongdae’s. He hears the struggle of everyone else but when Yixing finally looks up, they’re all pinned to their seats just like him.

The robot doesn’t give anything away. It’s like trying to find meaning in a brick wall. His eyes return to the seats and then to the others. Everyone is exchanging glances, eyes trying to panic whilst words cannot. Yixing doesn’t make eye contact with anyone.

_“RF,”_ Baekhyun whines, a playful juxtaposition to Jongin who looks like he’s about to cry. “Get you’re mad at me for being loud on the mission, but it’s too tight. Loosen up or it’s no fun.”

“You are not strapped for recreational purposes, Agent Hyunee.” RF replies as Baekhyun continues to jerk within the metal; everyone does. Baekhyun grumbles but it diffuses into the silence that takes the room.

“Why are you all so quiet, Agents?” The laughing sound emits from the robot. “Do you think I am going to kill you, or something? …That is a joke.” Now _that’s_ in bad taste. “I will not kill you. Due to the open structure of the Pod I am having you strapped in.”

It makes sense, perhaps, but why are the constraints awfully personalized, then? Why is there something bound around Jongin’s chest and why are Jongdae’s restraints lined with what looks like rubber and how come each of them just _had_ to sit in a certain place?

_Something's going on._ Yixing’s mind races within the seconds, a profuse sweat breaking. Nerves tingle everywhere, and it feels as if he isn’t actually sitting down. Does RF know? She shouldn’t. They made sure to not talk with the mics. They hadn’t slipped up. At least, to Yixing’s knowledge they hadn’t. And he highly doubts anyone here would be a traitor for a higher power that wants to eliminate their own race (…fine. Anyone _besides_ him).

He looks around, not being assured whatsoever by the reactions. Everyone’s wide eyes. Struggles. Minseok’s arm rubbing against his in attempts to get out. Baekhyun’s assured countenance faltering. Jongin’s cry; he seems to have hurt himself somehow. Kyungsoo’s sudden stillness.

“This– this is new, RF,” Junmyeon is the first one to speak. He sounds more than nervous, voice wavering and stuttering. Yixing looks across to him and he feels a pang of guilt, especially knowing that there’s something between them blocking any kind of reassuring eye contact, Junmyeon, it’s okay.

“It is. Like I say, I am improving in every single way every single– Agent DohBi... Care to explain?”

Another inhumane yowl emits from Chanyeol. Looking across, Yixing spots the kitten, thrashing to get out between his wrist and the metal. Jongin gasps.

“RF-nim, please, _let it loose!”_ Chanyeol shrieks, eyes wide. Yixing notices his arm trembling slightly, the skin overlapping the side of the constraint he’s pushing it against. “It got caught!”

“Granted.” The metal suddenly fades into the black fabric and the strap loosens up. It allows the kitten to, with one final mewl, shove itself out of the tight gap. Chanyeol’s hand goes to grab at it, but the angle is too difficult and he is too late. The kitten makes a grand tumble down his legs, rolling off his hightops onto the floor. However, it just brushes it off, standing up and padding towards the middle of the room. A couple affectionate coos come.

“Thank you! And, RF-nim,” Chanyeol continues, “do you mind if we keep it? Please? Especially since we’ve already left? I will feed and clean and–“

**_SLAM!_ **

All of the sudden, the kitten is out of view. Instead, a giant metal cylinder occupies the space. Yixing’s eyes trail the arm it connects to, the joint, the lever; the robot’s body: what had shook his hand days earlier. It takes a moment to register what just happened, the horrified gasps just as helpful as they are distracting. RF slowly lifts the cylinder.

Chanyeol screams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ruh roh.....
> 
> Okay, firstly, Sehun. That was /far/ too dramatic and emotionally charged to be solely from the observation that Yixing had hurt Junmyeon the night previous. I wonder if there has, for a while, been something deeper happening, that maybe Yixing hasn't noticed? 
> 
> Secondly, RUH ROH! Wonder what's going to happen 😳
> 
> Also sorry bout that chapter title I just......ok literally I call the ship 'exoship' and the planet 'exoplanet' and the video game 'exokart' you should know by now to not expect creativity from me
> 
> Also kind of off topic but I finally stopped being a pussy and signed up for one of those exo fic fest things on twitter and so basically if u like my stuff u can look forward to a new piece from me 😁 I am super excited


	52. What Robots Can Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time it's not just Yixing who's confronted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> disclaimer, this is a LOT to take in! would recommend to read when your mind is pretty awake and clear :D

**THE TENSION SKYROCKETS** above its limit and panic explodes. Gasps and rushed words spill from everyone’s mouths at a hundred miles an hour, all eyes directed on what used to be the space kitty. It’s slowly revealed like a magic trick, something more gruesome than any roadkill. Blood stains the floor, accompanied with the dark – and neon, strangely – greens and whites of several organs and mucus and other slimes that make Yixing's stomach lurch and throat clog. The kitten’s frame has been completely squashed, what was once a cuddly surface he was petting, something that nuzzled his head against his hand, now a paper-flat layer of skin. It distorts the body shape and face, making one of the eyeballs twice the size of the other. It soon pops.

White specks of fur are sprinkled among the mess, like snow.

_“RF?!”_

“WHAT THE HELL?!”

“WHY DID YOU–?!”

“OH MY GOD!”

“HOLY SHIT!”

Yixing quickly finds the sight unbearable, why is it like that?, it's something that was rubbing its face against his fist and showing its belly to pet, something that happily snugged into every single one of them without discrimination, why does it now look like that?, and he turns his head away, but the lack of sight doesn’t make the smell any less putrid. 

“You can start by cleaning that up, Agent DohBi.”

Chanyeol's bawling. His hands are shaking so emphatically Yixing can see it from over here and his chest heaves as if he’s struggling to breathe properly. Jongin begins to cry as well. Yixing notices how he keeps squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his fists, as if trying to do something. Minseok’s head is turned to the corner, face scrunched tight.

“Wh-wh- _what–“_ Junmyeon’s shock is evident in his voice and face, “Is the meaning of this? You just– just…”

“Why are you so surprised, Agent Suho?” RF asks. It’s unnerving, because the tone isn’t the least bit condescending, like a normal villain confrontation(? It has to be, right? Or is Yixing's perspective in terms of RF just so skewed that he takes everything as deliberate?) would include. “I expected a negative reaction from you all, but nothing this severe. Is there something wrong?”

It’s a question, but the suspicion that it’s not actually being asked strengthens every passing second.

“You just– holy _shit–_ you just _killed_ it! _”_ Baekhyun balks, eyes wide at the bloody carcass on the floor. Chanyeol’s sobs get louder. The confinements of the seats only exacerbate the situation, bringing huffs and slams of attempts to escape. Of course, they’re futile, it’s _metal,_ but it seems only Yixing recognizes this.

“You all kill things all the time. I do admit, this is rather abrupt, but it is still normal. Is it not? You all, on the other hand, seem rather abnormal.”

It’s the kind of wording that presents ambiguity, yet it’s the confirmation for Yixing. The night she had talked with him and Baekhyun, _do you think a realistic person would lie,_ the mission meeting, _you’re an intelligent young man, I’m sure you can figure out how to manage that;_ it’s an intimidation tactic he’s all too familiar with. It affirms, for him at least, that there’s not a speck of doubt that RF doesn’t know. She does. She knows their plan. Somehow, she knows their plan.

So that’s it. The faraway dream of destroying RF and returning to Earth disappears as if it never there.

 _“Why–_ why _did you–?!”_ Chanyeol wails. He looks completely heartbroken. Yixing feels something sting within himself. There has never been anything so bad as to make Chanyeol like this. The lack of his security takes from Yixing’s, as does the rest. The black hole of hopelessness expands and more and more possibilities fall into it. He won’t even return to Exoplanet alive, will he?

“It was a threat to the well-being of EXO. Agents, threats are not always immediate dangers. I think Agents Lay, Hyunee, Dohbi, D.O, and Kai should be able to recognize that the specimen just exterminated is related to the obstacle of Mission _17394841._ ” (So he _was_ right.) “In other words, it was only a matter of time before it would grow beyond the ship’s capacity and endanger you all. Besides, it would be distracting. You know there is a reason you are not allowed to have pets…

“Agents, please." RF continues after silence. "I know there is something wrong. However, I do not know what. As you know, communication is strained during missions. What happened? These are reactions far too severe to be solely from the alien– or cat, however you had referred to it.”

It seems now everyone understands what Yixing does. There is no more room for coincidence. RF is purely tempting them, trying to see if they will admit what she already knows. Do they feel as if refusing to admit it will make a difference?

“Nobody has anything? That is strange. It’s usually an effort to make you _stop_ talking. Even you, Hyunee? Nothing?” At his name, Baekhyun’s wide eyes go to the floor and he shakes his head profusely. Maybe it’s both an answer and a question: _this can’t be happening._ “Chen?” And it’s a reaction of the similar. Maybe Baekhyun and Jongdae had doubted it this whole time, but now they look as worried as the rest.

“D.O?” Is in some sort of panicked state. His eyes are shut tight and his fists are balled. His lips are parted slightly, brows furrowed in concentration of tremulous breaths. It’s as if he’s willing himself to go unconscious. “I can depend on you most of the time. What is the problem? Why are you shaking? Is it cold? There is unfortunately no heating system in here. But it is twenty point zero zero zero zero zero zero six degrees celsius.”

It’s then, “Suho? Will the leader at least answer me?” The leader says nothing and RF continues gravelly, “My goodness, Agents, it is _just_ a kitten. Or, more specifically, _Tagged K29401_. I can get another if it really means that much. A safe one.”

“How about you, Lay? You are the only one not struggling. Perhaps _you_ can answer me.” The mention isn’t surprising, but what is surprising is how the last day of unacknowledgement is immediately quelled as all heads and eyes snap right to him.

Nobody speaks but it says a _lot._

“…I think a cat would be nice.” Yixing ignores the temptation to state the obvious just to spite them all. The silence persists, but eyes start to come off him.

“That does not answer my question, but I suppose it is okay… You have already told me enough. Anyone else?”

At the last part, Yixing’s eyes go wide and his jaw drops. Everyone’s looking back to him and adrenaline rushes through his veins and he’s about to speak again, to deny it when–

 _“Okay!_ Enough of that!” RF’s voice suddenly loses its concern, returning to a cheerful tone. Yixing tries to make eye contact with eight different people at once as he shakes his head. _I didn’t tell her anything._ But why does he even try? There aren’t any responses and the barrier between eight and one expands.

 _Did_ he tell her something? He tries his best to recall everything he had said last night, but it’s all a blur of not being able to breathe and pain in his temples.

RF continues. “I would say that was fun for me, but I do not have emotions. And if I did, I don’t think I would have thought that funny, because it would be likely that I would not be a sadist because only eight percent of Earth’s population indulges in sadism. And that dead creature is nasty. I am glad I do not have a sense of smell.”

The dialogue distracts everyone from Yixing and he feels the slightest of pressure raised from his chest.

“Anyway, if you could not tell by now, that was a scare tactic. Unfortunately, the kitten presented a good opportunity. Now you are all in a state of weakness, meaning it will be easier to accept all of what I want to say to you.”

It’s purely blunt and nothing more. In the strangest way, it somehow reminds Yixing of himself, the way he’s always treated people. As if _he_ is RF and they’re suffering from his indifference…

No. That’s ridiculous. He’s _nothing_ like RF. His mind keeps clouding.

“Also, Kai, I advise you stop trying to escape your restraints. It is not going to work. You can keep trying, but I cannot promise that you will continue unharmed. The same applies to the rest of you and your abilities. They are catered to your individual which means escaping is not a possibility.”

“Jongin, _stop.”_ Kyungsoo speaks, but it comes out so tense it was obviously a struggle. Jongin immediately obeys, sniffing. As he looks at Kyungsoo, he shamelessly sheds more tears.

“Hyung, _please,_ ” Jongin cries. “Be okay. Please be okay. I’m right over here, Hyung. It’s– it’s okay.”

“What is it, RF?” Minseok says. He’s not crying or anything, but there isn’t an ounce of calm on his face.

“Just– just say what you keep hinting to.” Junmyeon’s demand comes out a meek request.

“Granted.” RF replies. “The T-L-D-R: I know you all are plotting against me. Unfortunately, you have lacked proper precaution as, last night during your discussion, one of you still had your microphones on, amongst other things. Also unfortunately, I am now going to have to kill you.”

And even if the exposé of the rebel plan meant to defeat all evil is supposed to be a horrifying plot-twist, Yixing’s not particularly surprised.

Honestly, he saw it coming.

But it doesn’t make it any less scary. The word _kill,_ when it’s out loud, echoes in his head and time freezes for a moment where Yixing is still there. It’s similar to the night previous: he first sees Earth. The hotel, PaoPao, his phone, his home, Mother, Cat, Namjoon, pet store career. It starts with the significant things and draws down to the insignificant: the ads that kept popping up on his laptop, the curtain in his mother’s room that didn’t match the others, that ice cream place down the street, his long overdue driver’s test.

Coming into space, EXO, gradually closed up that world. It tugged at the edges, bringing void closer and closer, making Yixing have to squint to see it right. What replaced it was the world here. Junmyeon, Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, Minseok, Chanyeol, Sehun, Jongin, Jongdae, the unfathomable technology, the wonders of the universe, the concepts he had discovered, applied, all the new feelings and experiences. Yet, ever since Kyungsoo came to him telling him about plot holes, that world has been closing too, where he shatters relationships and loses who he is and his mind tears itself apart so he can’t even remember what he had said to break Junmyeon’s heart.

Maybe it’s well placed that everything ends here.

The silence expands the black hole to where it swallows Yixing whole. Amongst panicked breaths and muffled crying, a dark static permeates. It starts at his head, drifting to his neck, chest, heart, legs, feet. It places a layer of something heavy that will sink him down below any kind of universe. Zhang Yixing is really going to _die._

“Any questions before I continue?” RF asks casually, yet a tad diplomatic, as if it’s a classroom.

And god dammit, _this_ is why Yixing didn’t want to say anything. _This_ is why Yixing wanted to stop investigating. _This_ is what validates every single speck of his doubt he had been _so_ scrutinized for. Heroes only win in movies and stories. Heroes aren’t real. This is what he had told Kyungsoo, told himself. He had thought Kyungsoo was blinded by hope and yet _still_ let himself be of the same fate through guilt, love, _emotion_ , and now look where they both are. They all are.

But then again, why is he complaining? This just means he gets to be done with it all faster.

 _“Why?”_ The struggle is evident in Jongin’s voice, but Sehun isn’t making fun of him this time. “I– we– we weren’t bad. I don’t– I don’t understand?” The innocence tears at Yixing. “You– you’re not going to actually…?”

“Yes, Kai. I _am_ going to actually kill you all. Execute you. End your lives. Dispose of you. Send to heaven– well, I would personally categorize a few of you more fit for hell… Anyway, I can rephrase this more times if needed…” A pause. “No? Alright. This is because you have all collectively turned against me and that is very harmful to EXO’s function… Considering last night’s conversation, you should understand this function adequately enough.”

Jongdae’s arm against his begins to feel slippery. Yixing turns his head and Jongdae’s _coated_ in wetness, as if he had just taken a shower. Everyone’s looking around at each other again when RF continues.

“Any other–“

 _“How?”_ Kyungsoo chokes out. His gaze is locked on an empty chair in the _M_ row. “How did you…” It’s strange, because why does Kyungsoo seem so surprised? Why does Kyungsoo always have so much _hope?_

“That is a long answer, D.O. However, I am willing to tell you if it would make you feel better before you are executed. A last meal dynamic, per se.”

“You– you _can’t_ kill us…” Baekhyun’s voice comes out worryingly soft. “You don’t want to. You love me? It’s… I don’t… this is a prank, right? You– you and Kyungsoo and Yixing set this up, right?"

Yixing doesn't know if he wants to laugh or cry.

Yet, the struggle of processing it all is only reasonable: they were given not even twenty-four hours to accept that their leader of several years had actually killed three of them and is just using them to destroy their own kind, and then had made a plan to stop it, and now here they are, being told they’re caught for a thirty minute at most crime and will be executed. All of their emotion thrown several directions such that they end up more confused than scared bound to the seats. It’s so fast yet it’s the reality of things like these. Yixing doesn’t know whether to consider himself lucky or unlucky he’s had so much time to process.

“You are welcome to think that if it makes you feel better.” RF replies. “Anyway, I was able to overhear your conversation last night because Agent Suho’s mic was still on.” It’s almost identical how everyone looks to Junmyeon as they had Yixing, yet it’s almost mirrored as they’re looks of pity, comfort.

However, one person takes his gaze off the empty chair in the M row to glare at Yixing himself and it makes two people who know whose fault it _really_ is.

“I’m sorry, _I’m sorry I’m sorry–“_ Junmyeon looks even weaker than last night. “I– I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t realize– I’m sorry, I’m sorry– _it’s– all my fault…_ I’m sorry…”

The scene replays in Yixing’s head. They were in the cave, Yixing said he had something to tell him, Junmyeon came close and Yixing saw his mic on the third option but it was a thing he hadn’t noticed, dazed background, and Junmyeon made a heart with their hands and Yixing’s own soared.

RF proceeds. “Along with this are the excursions of D.O and Lay. I will applaud you, D.O, on successfully inhibiting my devices. I could not hear a word of what you two discussed. However, your mistake was thinking that I would not be aware of such inhibition. I knew it was happening, and it did not take very long to figure out why. I am intelligence, after all.” Kyungsoo’s gaze has reverted back to the seat, expression returned to its despondent state.

“We both had something hidden. You two investigated me while I investigated you. Past experience enabled me to notice similar behavioral patterns between you two and Lu Han, Wu Yifan, and Huang Zitao, and tighten monitoring.” Yixing sees the twitches in expressions at the names. “I would say it was also smart of you, D.O, to include Lay in this; a Mandarin speaker and a critical thinker, but this also had given you away.

"If I were to make a suggestion, it would be to either have consulted another Agent, DohBi, for example, for the niche of knowledge he has pertaining to alien civilizations and also high critical thinking skills, or, if the Mandarin speaking was what had been key to your discovery, have waited to consult Lay. As he had only been in EXO for two months, Lay was barely back to psychological equilibrium when you involved him, which means he easily and rapidly fell back apart. To a robot, Lay’s mental instability was beyond obvious and suspicious. It was easy to target him and push him to his limit to extract what you two were doing. The blatant apathy towards his well-being sped up the process. Maybe if you Agents had been sympathetic and open to communicate with each other, we would not be here right now. But alas, humanity's largest flaw triumphed: emotion."

It’s another thing that’s Yixing’s fault. His lack of self-control. As he’s stared at, Yixing lowers his eyes to the floor and realizes one of his shoes is still untied. Now that they’re on the ship, he can see that mauve sprinkles of dust stain the white.

“Also given past experience, I had realized my clandestine intentions were yet again discovered.” Upon finishing the statement, RF floats a bit towards the _M_ side. The restraints are so tight Yixing can’t recoil. “Anyway, that is a summary of how you were exposed, and now, as I do not expect any successful future, I will dispose of you, as I had the three former Agents.” The line must sting and Yixing sees it in Junmyeon who blinks and this time tears spill. “I am sorry it has to be this way, though it is not exactly my fault."

“Dis- _dispose_ of us?” Minseok repeats quietly, hesitant, as if trying to speak a foreign language.

“Yes, Xiumin, _dispose of you._ Now knowing what you know, you will only serve as reluctant nuisances. Hence–“

“If we’re going to be disposed of,” Kyungsoo interrupts, “then– then at least tell us what’s going to be done after we’re gone. And everything done before. Everything about everything. We deserve to know."

“And what makes you think that, D.O?” _Everything about everything._ Why does Kyungsoo want to make this an even _longer_ process? 

“The twelve lives and several others back on Earth you’ve _destroyed.”_ He says it with so much spite Yixing’s distracted from the question and finds goosebumps on his arm.

There’s a pause from the robot before, “Fair enough. I will tell you. From what I had gathered from your conversation last night, you have figured out much of what I have planned to do, anyway. I also applaud you on that, by the way.”

Yixing observes the expressions as RF begins to explain how everything they’ve been living is a lie. He wonders how shocked he would be if he were in their place. In a place where he, like Kyungsoo had pointed out, had known happiness and comfort within EXO, had so much trust in everything and everyone, and had, most of all, _time._ The time they’ve spent working towards this goal that they’re told within one night is a lie, and then the next day that they are going to be killed. What results is more shock than anger and sadness, which he sees in blank faces and furrowed brows and, in some, eyes brimmed with wetness (and, in others, sobs that still haven't gotten over the kitten).

“In summary, what D.O had told you all was correct. I have had an ulterior goal hidden from you all this whole time. This goal is to destroy your species. As in humanity. I will explain why after some background information.” It sounds as if it’s an academic report and not a monologue from a villain. The nonchalant element makes it chillingly soothing. “I will first state what you already know. I am RF_05, or, alternatively, Red Force model 05. I am the fifth prototype of Eugênio Vermillion and I am the most intelligent technology ever created. The following may be less obvious or unknown information: My creator, Vermillion, had designed operation EXO alongside alien nations– most specifically, planet #12, in 1987. However, it was not until 2003 that I and CF_13, Combination Force model 13, were created. I was designed to self-improve so I could finish Vermillion’s goal with or without governance. As the earliest of you may be able to imagine, I used to be technologically level with a vacuum cleaner. Now, I can invent vacuum cleaners.”

 _Vermillion designed us to carry on his legacy, which includes being able to improve ourselves when he could no longer._ Yixing recalls.

“Eugênio Vermillion died in 2006. I was left alone with CF. As machines with the ability to make our own judgements, we reviewed operation EXO. As you may agree, ending humanity is quite the daunting and seemingly frivolous task.” The current state of perplexity leaves no room for sass. If it were any other situation, Yixing would expect Baekhyun to be the first one to give a _no shit,_ but instead he’s gawking with his jaw dropped and then without his jaw dropped because maybe he accidentally drooled or something because now he’s wiping his mouth and looking around as if checking if anyone saw. Jongdae is still sweating profusely and Sehun who’d also make quips balks with a bewildered countenance unfit for his stern features. “Ultimately, we had, evidently, deemed it necessary. This is because humanity is a species detrimental to the function of societies throughout the universe.”

The perplexity intensifies. Even Yixing finds himself paying close attention, because this is the million-dollar (world-saving) question he and Kyungsoo have been stumped on all along: _why?_

“Here are the facts that inclined us to our decision: humanity is the fastest improving race. It has only taken seven million years for your species to get to what it is today, which is far faster than the second-fastest improving species, Martians, at one billion years to reach what equates to your primitive stage. This is one hundred and forty-two times faster. This is especially impressive considering Earth is in a newer part of the universe and has no other communities near to help and interact, save for the Martians who have yet to develop language.”

A memory from a hazy mind comes. Something Chanyeol had told him on his first day at the job: _They actually really revere us in that way, the aliens– like, cause we’re so advanced against such odds._ So they are trying to destroy humanity simply because it’s _dangerous?_ Yixing doesn’t get it. Despite the animosity, he looks to his ex-ex-partner in investigation as if he’ll have the answer. He still has on the same expression as five, ten minutes ago. He’s still staring at the same chair as five, ten minutes ago.

“Because of this, the vast majority of colonies, or the U-A,” Something Yixing vaguely remembers having read about– as in, he remembers seeing the abbreviation, not what it actually stands for, “have made an executive decision to keep a close eye on you. Following this, humans proved to be doing nothing good. They exhibit parasitic behaviors. They destroy their own environment, which will eventually become inhabitable, and are currently trying to make life on Mars, which will end up in them eradicating aforementioned Martians. Humans have a unique tendency of imperialism. Their selfish nature inclines them to take and kill to further their own species. Most life outside Earth does not have these innate qualities.”

_Vermillion claims humanity causes problems within the universe and will be the destruction of the everything we have ever known and, even more unbelievably, do not yet know._

“The creation of the ‘ISS’ was when it was decided to make a collaborative effort to end your species before it becomes tyrannical and takes control of the universe. Eugênio Vermillion had come into contact with this information during his childhood, in which he–“

“Yah.” Baekhyun interrupts confidently, though when RF actually stops talking and he’s given the stage to continue, his eyes widen and his voice trembles. “I–I thought– thought that dude, the one that made EXO–” It’s strange how little they all seem to know or care about him, like a country who doesn't care if their citizens even know its name. “–thought you said he was part alien. And that’s why he wanted to… _save the universe.”_

“If it has not occurred to you by now, Hyunee, I have lied about many things.”

Baekhyun’s face reddens, “Well– okay– but– jesus, _who_ in they right mind would… was he, like, left on the street as a kid or something?”

“Eugênio Vermillion was never abandoned. He grew up in an average family.”

Baekhyun’s brows furrow. “Abused?”

“Eugênio Vermillion was never abused. He had two loving parents.”

Baekhyun’s lips purse. “Um… bullied at school?”

“Eugênio Vermillion was never bullied at school. He had an intimate circle of friends and was friendly with everyone else.”

Baekhyun’s eyes narrow. “Rejected by someone he loved?”

“Eugênio Vermillion married his first crush from high school, Adriana Vermillion.” Who he later murdered, Yixing remembers.

Baekhyun’s nose scrunches. “Felt pressured by society to be someone he’s not?”

“Eugênio Vermillion always felt free to express his interest in space and mechanics. Many admired his idiosyncrasy.”

Baekhyun’s cheeks puff. “Then was he, like, bipolar? Autistic? Schizophrenic?”

“Eugênio Vermillion did not have any form of mental incapacitation to any degree. He was neurotypical.”

The whole countenance falls apart in frustration, “Then why the _fuck_ would he want to end the world?!”

“Maybe if you would shut up and let me explain…” RF’s sass, for the first time, isn’t sassed back. Baekhyun’s eyes widen and lips press shut. “Thank you. As I was saying, Eugênio Vermillion had come into contact with this information during his childhood, in which he coincided with an alien conducting research on human life. This led him to take on science and, with alien correspondents, come to this decision to help. He was a completely rational person convinced by the argument and evidence that humanity is dangerous.

“I will now pause here, to let you process and comprehend.”

Yixing doesn’t need the time, though. He understands it all. Everything connects, as it has all along, and at this point, it’s really just shit luck that Zhang Yixing had to be a part of it all. To be one of the twelve so intricately involved and one of the twelve with the only chance to stop it. He would much rather just be killed without all of this beforehand.

Though, admittedly, it is, in its own morbid way, satisfying to figure it all out. Even if the details have to be told to him, he and Kyungsoo had hit the hammer right on the nail with RF’s ultimate goal. The question of how exactly he’s going to be killed also floats at the top of his brain, but he should wait for RF to finish first. Even if the answer would help him process that he is actually going to die. That he is never going to see anything ever again. That he will never go back to earth. That he will never grow old and ugly. That he is going to die before Cat does. That mother and Namjoon are never going to know what happened… Nor what will happen…

“What makes you think we– they– _humanity,_ fucking whatever, is going to _take over the universe?”_ Jongdae’s voice is beyond frustrated. He’s drenched in sweat but somehow he doesn’t look one bit scared. “There’s _nothing_ proving that.”

“Your ignorance is poorly accommodated with your opinion, Chen. Strict calculations of probability and psychology have confirmed this, long corroborated by the logic systems of almost every established alien nation in existence. You may not personally want to do such thing, but it is the nature of your species that presents a dead end.”

“And what makes _me_ responsible for that?!"

“Nothing, technically. That is unfortunate for you. However, what is being done is for the safety of life of the universe. We will not go through the trouble of differentiating the bad and good when humans are biologically prone to bad.”

“You’re saying this like you ain’t made by a human,” Baekhyun spits. In contrast to his best friend, he looks terrified. “Like you think you’re _better_ cause you can’t feel.”

“I am insulted.” RF makes the metal-crushing-metal laughing sound and Yixing’s chest tightens. “That was sarcasm. I think it is better that I don’t have emotion. I would like to think you would agree, considering what you had said was mean, and if I could feel, I would have probably injured you for saying it.” Any reply from Baekhyun is stifled. “Anyway, I will now elaborate about your part in this, Subjects.”

“Because Vermillion, though a genius, was still a human with a lifespan, he made plans for after he died. Originally, the plan was to simply use imported alien resources to build a type of bomb that would destroy the planet, but this was all put into jeopardy when Vermillion began to be investigated and therefore the project was moved Exoplanet, somewhere outside of Earth’s observable universe so it would not, under operation, interfere with the timeline.” Many furrowed brows and confused glances are exchanged at this. Yixing understands half of it, maybe, but his mind immediately goes to a comment in Yifan’s journal. Something about _time…_

But Yixing and Kyungsoo know more than Yifan, Luhan, and Zitao ever did, don't they?

“As mentioned, this included me and CF. We were to do whatever was needed to maintain the solidarity of the alien colonies and rid the universe of humanity. However, it was Vermillion who had built the ship and begun construction on Exoplanet. We do not know what his intentions were with it.

“So, matters were taken into our hands and we figured that in order to carry out the goal and also learn some more about humanity, as even if they are bad, they are intelligent, we decided to host humans to help us. The Tree of Life is a _supersource_. This means that it, when mixed with the right elements, gives auto-reproducing energy and power to something. Vermillion had built a converter to transfer the chemical power to technology.

“The Tree still needed energy, however. This aided in our decision to employ humans to do this, as we could simultaneously study their behavior and figure out the most practical way to rid of them, along with learning methods of human success to give to the aliens.” Yixing thinks about the _authoring_ job. Maybe teaching aliens basketball isn’t too important, but systems of government certainly is.

But it’s strange, because why would they want to emulate what’s evil? Would that not create more evil? Or does it have something to do with the seemingly human-only instinct of going to any extent to survive and further the species? If that trait is indeed human specific, then it’s no wonder aliens have taken forever to develop. Or is it simply the fact that Earth is a separated entity, therefore rather than making friends with it, the aliens choose to destroy them and steal their information? Could humans be a universal folk devil be so notorious that they're blinded by the complete hypocrisy of exterminating them all?

“There was criteria for the group of humans chosen.” RF strays him from the thought. “It happened to be Korean and Chinese men, though it could have easily been Ethiopian women. That demographic was second place, actually. However, males are considered a better exhibit of the weaknesses we needed.” It’s the strangest thing how nobody makes any comments following the statement. Yixing looks to Baekhyun and it’s harder to process him _not_ breaking into an indignant frown, making some sort of remark. 

“Now, for the deceased Subjects: Wu Yifan had encountered a flaw in CF’s system which resulted in him acquiring information he should not have. I am also sure Yifan had picked up on much from his solitary experience and perhaps also his job, though DohBi had clearly not.” The mention brings the mentioned to start crying again. Baekhyun next to him squeezes his hand. “I believe Wu Yifan had involved Lu Han and Huang Zitao because of a shared proficiency in another language.” As he’s looked at, Yixing wonders what it would be like now had he been here earlier. Has time saved him? Would he be dead? Is he being stared at because he happens to share their ethnicity and language, or is he being stared at because _one of the Chinese wasn't killed and it was the one who least deserves to be here?_

“Eventually, they destroyed CF. This went against my calculations, which was extremely surprising. Hence, I killed them. It was also beneficial to observe grief amongst the remaining Subjects.”

“You’re _fucked!”_ Jongdae outbursts, “Fucked up! That’s _so_ fucked up!”

“To me, ethics are the most interesting part of humans.” RF replies matter-of-factly. “It is quite the setback, pragmatically, yet you are still the most rapidly improving species. For example, right now. Chen, what I did was actually genius. However, due to your emotional attachment to Wu Yifan, Lu Han, and Huang Zitao, you interpreted this as blatant disrespect to them and therefore lashed out.”

Jongdae says nothing, but Yixing feels his arm jerking to try to get out once more. Minseok to his other side has yet to stop trying.

“And I assume you are all quite experienced with everything else. Any questions?” 

“I…” The leader speaks quietly. “I just don’t…” Wide eyes look up to the robot but Yixing still feels like it’s all his fault. “Why would you do this to us? After everything we’ve all…” It’s as if despite being used by his own boyfriend, Junmyeon still can’t comprehend the existence of _bad._

“Practicality purposes.” Makes Yixing bristle, the ache at his temples making a reappearance.

“Anything else?” Is met with a silence, though not exactly empty. Chanyeol and Jongin continue crying.

“Alright, then. Now, as stated, I will be executing you. We are currently on our way to Exoplanet, where you will be killed via lethal injection. However, I will not kill all of you at once. I will be keeping the strongest of you to recruit new Agents to finish what you had started. The Subjects who will be staying to recruit unit _NCT_ are–“

 _“No!”_ Junmyeon interjects, shaking his head profusely. “RF, please, no. We– _we_ will finish it. Even if we have to be handcuffed doing it. Even if we’re going– going to die afterwards. No one else can go through this. _No one.”_

 _“Please,”_ Jongin utters through tears and a mucus-clogged voice, “Don’t kill us. Please. I don’t wanna die. I don’t wanna… Please. I thought you loved– loved us. Please…”

“RF, you’re not– you’re not going to actually do this, right?” Jongdae entreats. The confidence from before is diminished. He’s stopped trying to get out. “We’ve been here for so long…”

“What about our _families?”_ Chanyeol sobs. “I– I thought I was gonna see them again… someday… mom… Yoora… please, don’t…”

“We’ll do anything.” Baekhyun says, quickly adding, “If– if you won’t kill us. We’ll do _anything.”_

Kyungsoo lets out a scoff. One that falters from his wavering voice. He’s still staring at the chair.

“You guys… really think you can cater to a pity that’s– that’s not there?”

RF laughs again, sending a shiver down Yixing’s spine.

 _“There we go!”_ The robot chirps. “Like I said, D.O is the smartest of you all. Your words mean nothing to me. If they did, I would have returned you to Earth a long time ago. Or maybe, if I were evil, I would be cringing. This may offend you, but it _is_ rather cringeworthy to have you cry and beg for your lives. It is as if the last three years of training and missions had meant nothing. You are all still children. A pity.” Chanyeol sniffs loudly and seems to try to quiet his hyperventilating while Jongin only cries harder.

But RF didn’t lie, Sehun and Jongin still _are_ children. And the rest of them aren’t too far off. Sehun has yet to cry, but he looks awfully close with eyes wider than Yixing’s ever seen them. Jongin and Chanyeol are in the worst states, liquids coming out of eyes and noses and staining the collars of their shirts. Kyungsoo in between them still stares at the empty seats across. Baekhyun is balking at the robot, teary eyes full of shock and betrayal. Junmyeon is similar, though he keeps looking away from the robot to everyone, as if making sure they are still there. Jongdae would almost look just slightly put-off if not for the sweat that has yet to stop. Minseok shows an akin calmness, but fear is exposed in his eyes, the intimidating sternness of a tiger replaced with the timid wideness of a kitten. Meanwhile the actual kitten clogs Yixing's nostrils in a vomit-inducing aroma.

“Operation NCT is in motion and my plans will not change. Those who will remain alive for the time being include: Kai, Xiumin, and Xuanxu. The rest of you will be executed in this order: D.O, Lay, Chen, Hyunee, Suho, and DohBi. Any questions?”

It’s out of morbid satisfaction that Yixing looks to a trembling Sehun and thinks, _looks like I’m second. Bummer._

Glances exchange around the room, most emphasized on the three who will live. Yixing sees why, they’re the strongest fighters and the least of a threat to RF, but he still feels that disappointment in his chest. Like a lottery with one in a billion, why had it been in his nature to hope for something so frivolous? The human instinct really is self-interest.

"No, no, no,” Minseok begins saying slowly, the word speeding up, “nononono. Not me. Not him.” He looks across Yixing to Jongdae. Their eyes exchange what words cannot. “Not… RF, kill me too.”

A panicked state similar to when Yixing had pretended to throw up, to when he spotted the beetle above his head. It’s probably the most off-putting reaction here. “You– you don’t understand, I can’t live without him. Kill me too–“

 _“No!”_ Jongdae shouts and it’s loud in Yixing’s ear, “You’ve been–“

“Kill me too!” Minseok whips around to RF, “Or I won’t work for you. I’ll refuse. Kill _anyone_ and I’ll refuse.”

Yixing looks to Junmyeon. It's not returned. They’re going to die like this. Their lives will end with this barrier in between them. Yixing’s life will end with this barrier between him and everyone. Eight and one. They’re going to be executed together but it’s Yixing who’s going to die alone.

RF replies, but Yixing gets stuck in the moment and he doesn’t hear it. He’s – still – really going to die. It’s slowly pushing through his head, tightening his body as it progresses. On top of the sweating and restricted breathing, Yixing begins to feel sick, too. The position he is in becomes _very_ uncomfortable, he’s going to throw up if he isn’t able to adjust himself.

Never before has Yixing been so powerless. He knows he is going to die. He knows exactly how. He knows exactly when. Yet, there is absolutely _nothing_ he can do but follow the fate, his condition growing worse and worse until the very moment. He has never experienced such a _devoid_ feeling; it’s weird. A giant hole inside him. An interminable panic attack’s climax. The strangest part is how he has yet to cry.

The same phrase, as it does in every single one of his conflicts, keeps repeating like a broken alarm: _what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?_ Because no answer comes. _Nothing_ is not an option but it’s the only ability.

He has yet to struggle and it will stay that way. He has seen the results. Minseok’s bright red wrists, Jongdae’s profuse sweat, Sehun’s exhausted shaking. Yixing has maybe half the strength they do and no working power. And RF would certainly not let another thing slip by her. Hence, Yixing can’t utilize his body nor his mind. All he can do is remind himself that this is what he wants, that it's all going to be okay once the injections inside him and he starts to feel sleepy.

Suddenly, there’s a sound of regurgitation.

Yixing whips his head to see Jongin’s body craned – as much as the restraints will allow – over the side of the chair, vomit spilling from his mouth. The brown runs down the floor to join the kitten’s guts in the center. Jongin coughs and gags, trying to spit out the remains. However, he can’t lift up his hands to wipe, so he is left with something at the corner of his mouth and on his shirt that diminishes in color as more tears hit it. His eyes are distant.

 _“Sorry– sorry Hyung,”_ He mutters, coughing again.

Yixing then looks to Minseok. He’s now faced away from him, away from Jongin, away from everyone, towards RF, even, chest heaving as he breathes heavily. He doesn’t reply. It’s not long before Yixing hears him gasp for air and his breathing continues in that ragged pattern. Yixing doesn’t do anything but stare.

“If that starts to smell, that is very unfortunate for all of you.” RF remarks as if the odor of the dead kitten hasn’t been here the whole time. “Also, we are approaching Exoplanet. Please remember that whatever you may have spontaneously planned, I can put a stop to it quicker than you can even start to do it. Follow directions. You will be unstrapped one at a time, and you will be given handcuffs to assure obedience.”

What Yixing guesses was supposed to come earlier when RF had moved towards the M side emerges out from the back wall. A sort of machine, much similar to the one in which he had gotten his bracelet deactivated. It has two holes in the middle and is transparent, giving sight to a pair of high-tec restraints suspended open by tongs.

They are sleek and white and the only difference from the handcuffs Yixing already has is that they go on both wrists.

“Hyunee.” Simultaneous to RF’s beckon, all of the metal cuffs on Baekhyun suddenly deform into straps and unbuckle themselves. The boy flinches, eyes widening as if freedom is the scariest part. He immediately grabs the forearms of Chanyeol and Junmyeon and looks up at RF. He doesn’t move.

“I do not mind how long you take, but your members may.”

“R-right.” Baekhyun nods to no one in particular, breath shaky as he stands. The last thing he does is let go of their hands, Yixing notices. He doesn’t take his eyes off of the robot as he slowly approaches the machine.

However, instead of inserting his wrists, Baekhyun does something else. In one swift movement, he swings his hands towards the robot. The beginning of something bright emits, but anything he had intended to do is rejected by an earsplitting zap.

Shouts erupt as Baekhyun’s body hits the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ruh roh(2)
> 
> So, this was essentially the big bad villain manifesto chapter, hence a kind of info-dumpy thing (sorry if it was a lot!). I hope I've plotted this story well enough that this chapter had a balanced enough mix between oh-wow and I-knew-it.... I feel like you are more on the I-knew-it side of things than is good/ideal, but I also did not intend any plot twist for this part. Please let me know your thoughts on it all! Was this kind of explanation what you expected? What do you think of everyone's reactions? /Yixing's/ reaction? 
> 
> Also, there was an obscure little way you may have guessed that the exos were going to be found out. From chapter 48 (sulay sexy time chapter):
> 
> "Junmyeon’s soft jaw, plump lips pouted slightly as if he shares every single one of his worries, the mic on his cheek with the knob up high, high, the high cheekbones over;" 
> 
> High knob not only emphasized, but, if you really want to stretch it, said thrice as in its on the top/third option, the option for the private channel with RF. Though honestly I think you only would have caught it if you're like one of those kpop music video analyzer people (aka will literally make a 20k word theory from a pebble accidentally kicked on the mv set) or maybe if you read this with agonizing meticulousness
> 
> Also sorry for killing the kitty and baekhyun
> 
> Lol no kidding baekhyun is not dead
> 
> Probably.
> 
> Until next week~ 😁 <3


	53. What Robots Can't Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the EXO members don't make the same mistake.

**A GASP** tears itself out of Yixing’s throat, his eyes immediately going to Baekhyun’s chest. Is he breathing? Why did he do that? _Why_ did he do that? RF had literally said _not_ to do that!

“BAEKHYUN!”

_“What did you do to him?!”_ Jongdae shouts. He’s probably used so much energy yet this is the hardest he has tried to escape.

“OH MY GOD, BAEK!”

“Baekhyun! Wake up!”

Yixing can’t tell if he is breathing or not. Baekhyun had landed face down, cheek touching the floor and body pathetically slumped. But he isn’t dead. Yixing just can’t get a very good angle. Baekhyun isn’t dead. He isn’t. RF only said she would put a stop to attempts to attack; she didn’t say she would kill. Right? Or did she take the opportunity to make her job easier?

“BAEKHYUN!”

Then, Yixing spots a small tendril of smoke in the air. He traces it down to Baekhyun’s right wrist. Under the pristine white of the band oozes blood, the skin around it completely destroyed. The memory of him holding his mutilated wrist in the hall surfaces and it’s the only time he doesn’t look away. Can’t look away. Despite being told he's about to be sent to death it's only this where he freezes in fear.

“He’s okay! He’s going to be okay– Baekhyun!”

Is he?

“Oh my god– look at his… Baekhyun!”

RF’s volume raises to triumph the shouts. “Now, let me repeat, as it seems some have not heard. _Please remember that whatever you may have spontaneously planned, I can put a stop to it quicker than you can even start to do it. Follow directions._ You are not quicker than a robot.”

“IS HE DEAD, RF?!”

Even if Yixing’s last interactions with him are glares, Baekhyun can’t be dead. He’ll get up in a moment, bursting out into laughter and pointing at everyone because _hah, losers, sike!_ He can’t fathom someone so animated suddenly stop. Baekhyun can’t die. The only member Yixing has exchanged a glance with on their home soil, the only real connection to Earth he has. Why had he thought he could do something? Why was Kyungsoo so surprised they were caught? Why does everyone have so much god damn _hope?_

“I will leave that for you to speculate.” RF answers. Yixing’s eyes sting and Baekhyun’s bloody wrist is blurred, but everything's too hazy to really break down. Everything's too exhausted to really break down. His body relaxes in its petrification, awaiting the sweet taste of forever sleep it's probably wanted for a while now.

“Subject Kai, I trust you will not make the same mistake.” Suddenly, Jongin is let loose. His wrists are also a bloody mess, but from the chafing of the metal.

“Can– can I– check if Hyung’s okay? Please?” He asks timidly, standing up and edging closer to Kyungsoo, grabbing at his hands. Kyungsoo breaks from his trance to look up at him.

“After the restraints are on, Kai.”

Jongin nods, slowly breaking away from his seat. The last thing he does, like Baekhyun, is let go of his member’s hand. He creeps forward so close to the seats his hand brushes over Chanyeol’s as well. He has to step over Baekhyun’s body to get access, and Yixing can see the moment of hesitance, one foot over him and one behind, of bending down, lifting him in his arms and checking for a pulse, hugging him, trying to wake him up. But something draws Yixing away from the hesitance, a minor detail in the background he had thought he’d…

Chanyeol’s hand. Jongin wasn’t close to the seats.

Chanyeol’s hand is almost free.

The fabric had never turned back into metal and is still as loose as it was to let the kitten squeeze out. Is anybody else seeing it? Yixing gives a weary glance to the others, but everyone is focused on Jongin and the machine. Even Chanyeol himself. It does seem he has noticed though, because his hand is brought back to the edge of the fabric, _so_ close to fitting through. He only needs a little bit of assistance.

Despite everything telling him it’s hopeless, that dying will bring him the peace he's wanted since he walked down rainy downtown Seoul, Yixing’s brain starts back up.

“Xiumin.” Jongin is kneeling down by Baekhyun, hands on his face. Minseok has a hand to his chest and still looks like he can’t breathe.

What would freedom do, though? Chanyeol will have one hand out and RF may or may not know. She clearly has control of the restraints, but it does not seem she knows if they are one hundred percent detained or not. Especially considering one almost has a hand free _._ If Chanyeol is free, and considering the other straps don’t prohibit the use of it, he has fire powers. Could he melt everyone else’s cuffs off? Or could he set something on fire? Fireballs? Something that could destruct the technology (but somehow not them themselves…) in an instant? The instant that the robot wouldn’t expect it? Would a lack of anticipation bring Chanyeol a different fate than Baekhyun? Yet, is that what Yixing even wants? Doesn’t he want to die? To be free of this stress and fighting?

The internal battle is paused when he realizes Chanyeol is staring _right_ at him.

Yixing, after checking his peripheral as if RF would be looking, brushes off the comforts of death and stares at Chanyeol just as adamantly back, flickering his eyes down to his wrist. They do what no robot can and communicate without substance. Chanyeol seems to know what he is talking about, as he blinks, nodding his head in the slightest. He knows.

They know. And RF… might not?

“Xuanxu.” And everything in Yixing contradicts itself as hope floods his chest, as whatever was weighing him down lightens in some sort of adrenaline-rushed ambition.

Chanyeol, after they maintain a couple seconds of eye contact, mimics Yixing’s eye-pointing as he glances to his right. Then, after darting his eyes to Kyungsoo a couple times, Chanyeol looks down to his wrist. His two fingers subtly pinch together, making a cutting motion.

_Kyungsoo_ , Yixing immediately understands. If he is called before Chanyeol, Kyungsoo can force it apart. Kyungsoo, if Yixing’s memory isn’t failing him, is able to use his power without touching the actual target. It’s at least a possibility, and given what Baekhyun had done with his power, a chance: Baekhyun had managed something likely _huge_ in a second and was attacking RF. This one is simple, quick, and not even in RF’s direction. Chanyeol wants Kyungsoo to force it apart, because Chanyeol knows he is able to do something if he can get a hand loose. It’s a possibility, a chance, a _hope._

“Suho.”

But time is running out.

After Junmyeon passes in front of him, Yixing stares Kyungsoo down. He quickly feels his face heat up, as he had widened his eyes far too much to be subtle. He quickly tones it down to something he is sure a robot cannot interpret: a blank stare. It’s the only way of communication. He can’t say anything. If Yixing were to talk to Kyungsoo, it would ruin any chance. Besides, everything is quiet now. So quiet that Yixing hears the click of Junmyeon’s handcuffs sealing together. But Yixing doesn’t look. Instead, he keeps his gaze on Kyungsoo.

He tries to will the past days of avoidance away, but all that comes is a rising boil of frustration. Kyungsoo hasn’t spared him a glance ever since he betrayed him. Why would he now? And it has seemed the whole time Kyungsoo hasn’t even moved his eyes off of the chair. He’s clearly panicked. Yet, Yixing still tries, suppressing everything but a simple gaze.

_Come on…_

“Lay.”

The flame of hope suddenly endures a strong wind, almost blowing it out. _Almost_.

It is short lived, as this, Yixing realizes, is an opportunity. As he slowly stands, Kyungsoo’s eyes _finally_ go to him. This is it. This is his chance. Yixing makes sure to keep eye contact. If it goes loose, all hope is gone. Despite them almost touching, there’s no way either Chanyeol and Kyungsoo can move their restrained heads enough to be looking directly (and subtly) at each other to communicate what Yixing and Chanyeol had. Nor would there be enough time.

He has to think quick: nod, point, gaze, mouth. There are all of these indicators, ranging from inconspicuous to incriminating. Yixing quickly assesses that the strongest would be pointing, yet it’s the most obvious. But then, he remembers, RF is on the M side of the room.

From that angle, given she doesn’t have cameras, she wouldn’t be able to see.

It doesn’t look strange that Yixing walks slowly, hands shaking at his sides because he is just that scared. Baekhyun’s body serves as something useful. Maintaining eye contact with Kyungsoo the whole time (even if his head is angled a different way– Kyungsoo somehow also knows it’s not just any eye contact), he first puts his right foot over Baekhyun. He twists himself in the slightest to assure his body will hide it. With this, he risks the nod to his left hand, pressed against the side of his thigh and pointing at Chanyeol, at his wrist.

Now, he has reached the machine. It reminds him of what he had to use to deactivate his wristband, except that it is two-handed. He reaches in, positioning his upper wrists in the half-circles.

_Click._

Something cold presses against his forearms, the spot above his wristband.

Yixing turns to the herd everyone stands in, practically huddled in the corner with Jongin and Minseok at opposite sides. RF is right, it does look kind of pitiful. Eye contact is made with a few, but Yixing doesn’t approach. Instead, he stands near the machine. Right next to it.

“Lay, please move away from the machine.”

Because he isn’t a really good actor, Yixing only glances up at the robot dumbly, lips parting as he inches a couple steps.

“Further.”

“Sorry.” He mumbles, stepping in next to Sehun. The whole interaction had taken maybe fifteen seconds, and Yixing observes two outcomes. One: the standing give him glares, because is Yixing so petty as to _still_ try to avoid them? They’re going to die, for god sakes!

And two: Kyungsoo's eyes are right on Chanyeol's wrist.

“D.O.” Even more hope with even more fear surges as Kyungsoo’s confines are released.

However, Kyungsoo doesn’t stand up. Instead, he’s back to staring at the seats across from him. He doesn’t budge, body tense, face blank. Chanyeol’s looking at him – as much as his head can turn – with desperation in his eyes. Soon more tears in his eyes. 

Hope disappears and the flame blows out. It’s too dark to even see the smoke in its wake, but maybe it’s fine. Yixing shouldn’t have let himself get so hopeful. Hasn’t he learned his lesson?

“D.O,” RF repeats, “please stand up and put on the handcuffs. If you do not, you will share the same fate as Hyunee.”

Yixing’s gaze and mind falls back to Baekhyun. With the sliver of hope, his state had moment(s)arily escaped him. _Fate,_ RF said. Does that mean he is dead? Jongin had been checking earlier. Yixing turns around, yet Jongin’s face doesn’t tell him anything; he has been devastated this whole time. Baekhyun is still the same as he was, though now his hair has fallen over his eyes and drool puddles at the crevice of his lips and there’s more blood.

_“Sorry,”_ Kyungsoo mutters, standing slowly, “sorry, sorry. Don’t hurt me. It’s hard.” He is still staring at the seat.

“Please put on the handcuffs, D.O.”

“Yes…” Finally, his eyes break from the seat as he turns. He looks at the group, but Yixing doesn’t find himself making eye contact. Like Yixing, Kyungsoo also walks slow, small frame trembling. Yixing doesn’t bother to watch and just looks to see what will come of their last free member. How hopeless he must–

Wait.

But Chanyeol is free.

Barely milliseconds after the revelation there are suddenly _flames._ Everywhere. His eyes burn from the brightness as do walls of inferno up to the ceiling, and just before the fire corners him Yixing makes out Jongdae, loose from his confines.

_ZAP!_

For a heartbeat, the sudden race of adrenaline and heart pauses. But no thud follows. Instead, Yixing’s suddenly off balance.

“ERROR! SYSTEM OVERLOAD!” A robotic voice booms from the walls, pain shoots through his skull. “ERROR! SYSTEM INFILTRATION! ERROR! ERROR! ERR–“

It collapses into static.

Several beeps and screeches of machines retaliate, and suddenly, the Pod _tilts_. Yixing immediately falls backwards into Jongin. He’s caught, but soon dropped. Everyone, despite their handcuffs, disperses, running straight through the fire and shouts erupting as if they can see what they’re doing, know where they’re going.

“KYUNGSOO!”

“BAEKHYUN!”

“CHANYEOL!”

_“HERE!_ COME HERE!”

Though he has cornered himself, Yixing is suddenly urged towards the flame as the Pod tilts once again. All the noises become louder, a mixture of fire cackling and _ERROR_ warnings and footsteps and slams and shouts and desperate cries of help from damaged machines. It’s all too much at once, and Yixing forces himself further into the corner. He can’t tell what’s going on beyond the wall of fire, though he does catch a glance of RF in a gap. She looks perfectly intact. Yet, what can he do? Yixing has no power. Yixing can’t do anything. Maybe he can try to off his handcuffs, but it’s all too much. It’s too much.

Suddenly, he is falling.

He has time just to spin so he doesn’t break his neck as the room flips completely upside down.

**“WARNING! THE POD IS OUT OF PATH! WARNING! THE POD IS OUT OF PATH! WARNING!”** Blares in his ears so he covers them, but it's still louder than anything he's ever heard. His heart slams faster and faster, breaths accelerating and chest aching and it’s hard to breathe because there’s so much smoke. He can’t see anything. Where is everyone? Is he okay? Is _this_ how he’s going to die?!

He is thrown against the wall as the ship lurches once more, a throbbing agony bursting from his side. It then happens again, and his shoulder is crushed. Again, and his head is nearly smashed. Yixing fights the handcuffs, but it’s no use. For a moment, excruciation claws up his body when his calf catches on fire, he can’t even hear his own scream, but it’s quickly put out when he is slammed into something else. _Someone_ else. Someone else? Is it Baekhyun?

It is.

Yixing immediately latches himself onto him, forcing handcuffed arms up over his head and around his shoulders. If the two useless things are together, they will be easier to navigate. He tries to see where everyone else is, yet he can't spot even a face. Just high-tops and shouts and noises and it’s too much, it’s too much, it's all too much and Yixing presses his face into dying boy's chest to block it all out.

**“WARNING! THE POD IS GOING TO CRASH! WARNING! THE POD IS GOING TO CRASH! WARNING! THE POD IS GOING TO–“**

The voice cuts out just before consciousness does.


	54. Big Bad Boss Battle Pt.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whether for good or for bad, Yixing doesn't die from the crash.

**THE PERPETUAL BLARE** of an alarm is background noise, but it’s the only thing Yixing hears.

It rings in a pattern of triplets, a distant sound one beat silent and two beats loud. Once it starts, it slowly increases in volume. Other noises join it: the cackling of fire, the beeps of several machines, the static of broken technology, a high-pitched ring he can’t quite decipher. The loudest of them all is the deafening silence that permeates after destruction.

After hearing, other senses come into play. A deep inhale is taken, picking up the scent of metal, blood, sweat, something else he can’t quite decipher. Subsequent to smell is feeling, pain shooting throughout his body and subsiding in an equally as agonizing throb. Everything hurts. It’s burning hot, but he can’t be on fire. Yet, since he’s able to process the sounds, the smells, the pain, Yixing is able to think:

He’s still alive.

This comes lethargically, as do following thoughts. Why is he still alive? It hurts so much. Why is the pain only worsening? His calf, there must be something crushing it. They all cognize slowly, having to break through a thick barrier of something not quite fatigue but certainly as heavy. As the thoughts register, though, the barrier lessens and the universe speeds up. Why didn’t he die? Why couldn’t he have died? What happened? Can he remember? With the thinning barrier it’s not only thoughts that rush in. The pain is only getting worse. Everything is only getting louder. It’s so hot, everything’s getting hotter.

Despite wanting to die right there so, _so_ much, everything in Yixing goes against him. His thoughts clarify, his senses sharpen, adrenaline rushes into his veins, prohibiting him from drifting back into unconsciousness where he was peaceful.

Eventually, he opens his eyes.

It’s the strangest thing how at first he sees black and then everything fades into view. He quickly identifies torn metal, technological debris, small fires. He is looking out into a wreck, yet he isn’t out in the open. He’s under something. A large scrap of metal bent over him looks as if it had almost killed him, or perhaps protected him.

So here Yixing is. If he can’t push away the thoughts, he may as well gather them: the pod had crashed, he had blacked out. He doesn’t know for how long, but now he is awake, still alive. He doesn’t think, despite how much pain he’s in, that he is going to die anytime soon. His body has told him otherwise, waking him up and forcing him to see and hear and feel and breathe and suffer and think. How good it would be right now, to just fade back out of consciousness, to take the easy way…

Yixing tries again and lets his eyes shut. He tries to take advantage of the fog in his mind, not thinking about anything else but the relaxing lull of sleep, not having to get up, say what’s going on?, he’ll be okay forever somewhere where he’s asleep, he’ll never feel sad again, he’ll never feel angry again, he’ll never be hurt again, he’ll never have obligations, he’ll never… _ever…_

Despite the seductive utopia of the void, the adrenaline stays the same and zooms through every inch of his body. He’s as aware of his head as he is his toes, legs, torso, ears; everything buzzes with restlessness as if it’s full of electricity. It’s a feeling all too similar to when he can’t sleep and eventually, a determined body triumphs a hopeless mind and Yixing’s eyes open again.

He’s alive. He’s not dying. He’s not going to die.

It hurts to move, every muscle protesting – despite its will to stay alive – when he does the slightest thing like lift his hands. Or, rather, try to. It’s not working. Nothing is moving.

That’s when he realizes he is on top of someone.

Baekhyun is directly under him. The strange smell he couldn’t quite identify. Yixing’s hands are trapped under his back. He shifts to the left to get his right hand out, but it doesn’t pull and Yixing remembers he has handcuffs on. With a maneuver that makes his sore abdomen tremble, he drags his arms up around Baekhyun’s neck and lifts himself up. The thick white block in between the two cuffs is torn at his left, wires and colors sticking out, and it only takes a couple seconds of effort to rip them apart, albeit his wrists are still trapped. He doesn’t do any more and instead focuses to the boy under him.

Baekhyun is still as he was on the ship, just dirtier. His forehead is slick with sweat and debris particles and his wrist, down by his waist, is still bleeding. He looks so enviously peaceful. Baekhyun isn’t in pain. His face shows a tranquility never seen before, it’s the same as when he’s sleeping but there’s an element that makes Yixing twice as jealous, maybe it’s the forever prospect of eyes closed, lips shut, body still…

It’s a conclusion. But is it finished?

“Baekhyun…” Yixing’s throat is dry and it burns when the name comes out. But it’s not like Baekhyun hears him anyway.

How do you check if people are alive? Right, pulse. Yixing kneels up until his head touches the metal. He realizes that sitting on top of Baekhyun probably isn’t the best for his breathing, but there isn’t any room to move with the shard leant over them. He can’t even sit fully upright. The best he can do is scoot back onto his stomach so it’s at least not his lungs.

However, as he does this and the back of his thigh meets his calf, agony explodes through his leg. He lets out a hiss as he reverts to a kneel, stabilizing a hand on Baekhyun’s chest and looking back to realize his leg is _melted._ The bottom half of the right leg of his pants is completely gone, the calf under it bright red and textured with boils all over. The back of his thigh that met had it is now stained with some remnants of his molten skin. As he’s staring, teeth gritted trying to muster through the burn from the contact, the sight blurs and he wipes his eyes, why couldn’t he just have died? Why can’t he just go back asleep? Why does he have to deal with this? Why does everything hate him? It hurts so much. It hurts so fucking much.

Yixing looks back to Baekhyun, as peaceful as ever.

 _“You’re so lucky…”_ He whispers so his throat doesn’t burn, wiping more tears and raking his hands through his hair. _“Let’s switch places. Please. I’m begging you.”_

Enough seconds of no response and he and swallows the lump in his throat, sniffling as he places his foot flat on the ground. It’s an awkward half-straddle half-squat and extremely uncomfortable, but the strain of his flexibility is nothing compared to the burn that still rages on.

Where is the pulse again? Wrists, but he can’t exactly check that right now. So what else? Right, throat. Yixing pairs his fingers and places them under Baekhyun’s jawline, trying to find something.

All that pulses is his throbbing calf.

So, he puts a finger under his nose, waiting for anything.

All that breathes is himself, trembling.

An exasperated huff as he sits back up. He stalls a moment for an idea. Baekhyun’s jacket is already unzipped, so all Yixing has to do is undo the buttons. He puts his hands to Baekhyun’s heart, but then he realizes the heart is on the other side so he switches.

Baekhyun’s chest is warm. His whole body is still warm. Sweating, even. Yixing had felt it. That’s why he was so hot. He feels for a heartbeat, leaning his head down to the spot as well. Baekhyun has to be alive. What is Yixing going to do without him? What does he do with a dead Baekhyun? How is he to proceed when the body of the very boy who brought him here is under him, lifeless? How come he hadn’t died with him? If Baekhyun is dead, how are the others?

Did EXO move on and leave Yixing behind?

“Baekhyun…” Yixing says again despite the scratch in his throat it brings. He pushes his hand down harder and uses the other to move Baekhyun’s bangs back to their normal place so it looks like he’s just closing his eyes, like he’ll open them and then laugh and call him fucking stupid because of course he’s not dead. All of the insults and glares suddenly don’t matter to Yixing, the animosity doesn’t matter to Yixing, he just _needs_ Baekhyun to be alive. He gives up his hand and uses his head, pressing his ear and cheek to hot skin and waiting… waiting…

Waiting…

Then, he feels something. He hears something.

He picks up the smallest beat, and Yixing’s mind goes completely blank as he waits for another one. When he does get another one, he elates. Baekhyun is still alive. He isn’t alone. He listens again, this time counting the intervals.

There’s about two each second. Is that bad?

Probably. It’s probably bad. Even if Yixing knows nothing about hearts and what is considered a too slow or too fast interval, he knows Baekhyun can’t be in any healthy condition. Yixing couldn’t sense any breathing and his wrist is utterly demolished. Now, he takes a closer look at it, picking his head up and lifting Baekhyun’s forearm. When the hand begins to bend far more than what can be natural, Yixing quickly supports it.

He can’t see what’s under the bracelet, but he doesn’t think trying to move it out of the way is a good idea. His wrist is too delicate. Besides, he can see enough from the damage at the sides. It’s a too-familiar sight: amongst the mess of blood is a deep, deep hole. It reminds him of the meat he’d get at school lunches, with everything black and charged and bone visible. Bone. There’s _bone._ Yixing sees Baekhyun’s _bone,_ among other tendons and ligaments. It makes him feel sick and bile rises to accompany the sob in his throat.

He wonders how loud Baekhyun would scream were he conscious.

When he stares so long that he begins to think he’ll actually throw up, he places the wrist back down. He has to help Baekhyun. He needs to help Baekhyun. He wants to help Baekhyun. But he’s not sure he can. The last time he tried to heal it ended with a bunch of blood on the ground. Besides, he doesn’t even have a source, nor the room to function.

So, he needs to get out. To find someone.

It’s in no way comforting how Yixing hasn’t heard a voice this whole time. Is it just him stranded in the universe with a boy half alive? He shudders at the thought of watching Baekhyun slowly die, his only company fading until he really does become the only thing in space. Yixing shakes it off and refocuses on placing a hand on the ground, struggling to lift his leg over Baekhyun’s body. It takes a moment to be careful with his calf, but he manages to maneuver himself into the maybe foot of room, then pushing Baekhyun so he’s vertical to the side. When he moves, a bright purple glow suddenly shines from under him. Yixing realizes he was on top of some kind of light beam.

His eyes follow the line out of the crevice they’re in and he finds that it connects to two others. Those others connect to others, and others, and it’s a grid. A giant grid that spreads the monochrome soil of Exoplanet. When the grid reaches a piece of damaged structure, it condenses, turning a thinner blue. Yixing quickly notices that the damaged structure isn’t the black of the Pod. Instead, it’s grey, a rectangular shape with a large hole in it. Squinting, he spots a familiar black and red pattern.

They must have crashed into Exoplanet. The planet is – even – more technology than he thought, too. It’s like when a phone is broken and everything glitches and pixelates. But here it’s a grid, overlaying everything and highlighting what is broken– now that he thinks about it, he remembers reading the color blue being the general code for damage. He spots tendrils of smoke coming out of the building.

Is somebody else in there, maybe? The Pod isn’t that big. They couldn’t have been strayed too far.

Yixing scoots to the edge of the crevice, stabilizing himself with hands on the metal and looking to either side. As far as he can see is a void of destruction: they had crashed into a long hallway, but there seems to be far more damage than what a simple Pod could do. Several sections of Exoplanet’s structure – of which is visible from here – are torn out, fires coming from some and shards of material scattered all throughout the desolate area. Yixing sees no one.

Should he shout? He thinks about this. If they crashed and _Yixing_ and _Baekhyun_ had miraculously survived, that means RF probably had, too. He will definitely be detected if he shouts. But, if he doesn’t, perhaps there is somebody else just as he is, too hesitant to reveal themselves.

Or maybe Yixing just should. Maybe if he gets caught, and willingly gives himself, RF can kill him peacefully. Of course, Yixing had decided he wasn’t going to die, but right now, looking at Baekhyun and then back at hopelessness, it feels like the only way. What else is he supposed to do? Spar RF and drive the spaceship back to Seoul?

Suddenly, something lights up from within the building.

A beeping sound that wasn’t there before enters his hearing range, and the light approaches tailed by a giant claw. The laser-reminiscent dot emerges out into the hallway, looking left and right. Then, a large ray of vermillion appears on the grid. It starts adjacent to the hallway, then moving outwards. Closer.

It’s scanning. RF is scanning.

Yixing ducks back into the crevice, panic arising. It would be so nice to die, yet it’s so scary to do. He peers back out to see the light traveling towards him and Baekhyun. When it’s on the grid, it makes the purple a black. They’ll be detected. They’ll be caught. There is no way he can come out, dragging a body or not, and evade. The space outside is enclosed and too tall for Yixing to jump over. Inside, the hole at the corner of the crevice taunts with something slightly less than shoulder’s length leeway, giving view to a vast area without much debris. It’s too small to fit through. They’re trapped. It’s inevitable.

So it’s okay, Yixing decides, eyes stinging when he looks at the light for too long even if the light hasn’t bothered his eyes this whole time. It will be alright. He will be detected, go out with his hands up, and beg for a peaceful out. Same for Baekhyun, if he isn’t dead by then.

As the light creeps closer, Yixing finds it harder to breathe. Despite the plan he backs up into the metal as far as he can, dragging Baekhyun by the shoulder with him and calf burning as it begins to press against his huddled figure. Despite the reassurance anxiety tears at him, a scream at the back of his throat. It’s slow, unlike last time, where chaos erupted and he was out within ten seconds. Now, mind crystal clear, everything in his life starts to come again and present itself, what he’s losing. It’s as if his subconscious is trying to convince himself to live. To do something when he can’t. It frustrates him.

Isn’t this what he wants?

Yixing’s hands clutch to his chest and his eyes squeeze shut, but they snap back open when he feels something solid between his wrist and his pectoral.

A familiar golden sight backs up the decision. The most practical choice is the easiest solution. It’s Logic and reality, detection and death are inevitable: if he tries to escape, tries to fight, he will only make it harder for himself. He will only bring himself more pain and that’s not what Yixing wants. He should understand by now that resisting makes the process more difficult and if he lets in, maybe he’ll feel guilty, especially deciding the fate of who currently can’t control it, but he’ll soon be dead and never have to feel again. His suffering will end, and it’ll be smoother if he gets up, goes out there. _RF, I surrender, please kill me gently, I don’t want it to hurt…_

It’s concise and to the point; practical… Practicality purposes…

With Junmyeon’s eyes glowing with hurt, breaths trembling and _Leave me alone_ because it was practical to exploit him for happiness, and the raw anger in Kyungsoo’s voice and the hurt behind his glare because it was practical to betray him, Baekhyun who’s dying and Chanyeol who sobbed over the kitten and Jongin who threw up and Minseok who couldn’t breathe and Jongdae who was soaked in sweat and Sehun who wouldn’t stop shaking and it’s all because it was practical to savor the moment and not tell Junmyeon, to keep himself happy for a little longer but, alas, he’s here dying anyway and–

 _Clink!_

Yixing watches the golden sheep hit one of the far away chunks of metal. He retracts his arm from the hole at the corner of the crevice, whipping his head back towards the opening. Time slows as a black seeps into the first few inches of the hiding place, stops, and, with the beep of something too close, completely disappears. The ground is back to purple and after a minute of silence, Yixing falls limp onto his back, chest heaving as he stares up at the metal cleft.

You know what? Fuck practicality.

From this angle, Yixing can see what becomes of his attempt. A red light shades the piece of metal the golden sheep had landed on. It then proceeds onward, away from him. In suit follows a giant robot, who, instead of hovering, walks on four spider-like legs and carries a claw. The claw aims itself at the piece of metal and there’s a blast of blue flame and the old Yixing is gone.

_I just…_

Yixing considers the idea that maybe he wants to live after all. Maybe it’s not practical that he keeps trying, keeps living, but maybe it’s not practicality he needs right now.

Amidst the shock and confusion at nothing but his own decision, Yixing jumps upright to a loud noise.

It’s like gunshots, but the guns are the galactic themed ones at the lazer-tag place. He lifts onto his knees, inching out of the crevice and craning his neck to look in the direction RF had gone.

There, a bit further from the ashpit of the piece of metal and the golden sheep, is RF. The claw used to expel fire is now a shield, blocking large green shots of some kind of ammunition. Tracing the shots, he spots a gun’s nozzle lifted right above a large piece of ground.

Then he spots a figure. Tan hands and momentary disappearances in time.

Jongin is alive. More must be alive. Jongin has a weapon. He must have gotten it from Exoplanet. What is the green light the gun is shooting, though? RF seems to want to block it, so it must be dangerous.

Then, the gun disappears. RF turns, angling her shield somewhere else at the same time shots from that direction begin. Jongin is trying to shoot her.

How does he help? What does he do? Yixing grabs onto the metal, sliding himself out all the way. He brings himself around behind the scrap, but he can’t see much due to the other big one right behind it. Maybe he should bring Baekhyun somewhere safe to try to heal him. But he should also let Jongin know he is here (with Baekhyun) so Jongin knows to distract RF. It also seems RF is by herself. No other technology to help her– unless she has for some reason been _waiting_ to use their wristbands to kill them all, there must have been some sort of disconnection. Will she be easier to attack this way? Is she actually destructible, like this? Alone? CF was destroyed but it was at a far more primitive level.

He doesn’t know. There’s so much he doesn’t know. But Yixing can’t sit and wait for answers so he returns to Baekhyun and digs his hands under his back. Going into something with so many unknowns is terrifying, but it’s not like he had been living in certainty before. The only way he can secure an unconscious body is bridal style, making sure to lift Baekhyun’s bleeding wrist onto his chest so it’s supported. Blood gets on Yixing’s hands and he’s not sure why he wipes it on his pants, it’s strange how etiquette still exists.

His legs burn as he does a half-crouch to carry Baekhyun out and then stands up fully. He’s not as heavy as Yixing thought he would be, but it’s still a toil to someone who is ready to drop dead. As he’s standing with a half-deceased boy in his arms, it once again occurs that he has _no_ idea what to do. There’s nothing narrating him, telling him where to go, there’s no plan discussed beforehand, yet the next route he takes could decide lives or deaths.

So, he takes his time to assess: he can’t go to Jongin. Jongin is occupied with RF. The distance between them, if Yixing were to stand out in between the building and this cluster of metal, is enough to be seen but not enough to be heard. It’s not exactly safe, nor does he think he would find any security in the building where the walls are programmed and out floats far too much smoke to be breathable. If Jongin is alive, Yixing is alive, Baekhyun is alive but MIA, RF is functioning, it’s likely that more are alive as well. He doesn’t need to focus on just Jongin; he may run into others.

Before Yixing can think too much into this, how _much_ more are alive?, he proceeds in the direction opposite from RF and Jongin towards more chunks of non-aflame debris parallel to the hallway. Said hallway stretches on for a while, maybe fifty feet, but eventually splits which renders Yixing cornered. However, he won’t stay here very long. He’s going to find somewhere safe to put Baekhyun and get help.

Amongst fractured walls and delicately hanging tons of metal, Yixing finds a crevice similar to the one earlier except that this one has a high roof. He lays Baekhyun down but then sits him upright so it looks like he’s just resting, like he’ll open his eyes and then laugh and call him fucking stupid because of course he’s not dead.

And what now? Yixing stands up to run to find help but is that right? Can he heal Baekhyun? Would this waste the only opportunity he has to save his life? But he needs a source, doesn’t he? He can’t take nutrients from just _nothing._ So no matter what he has to find somebody, right? Baekhyun’s already got a new pool of blood around his wrist because Yixing’s taking too long thinking, but he won’t die _that_ soon, right?

He doesn’t know.

Yet Yixing is soon sprinting as if he does know. The air is sharp against the boils on his calf. He decides the best course of action is to have himself as out in the open as he can where he won’t be detectible by RF, but rather possible hiders and onlookers. He trails over behind where he had woken up, keeping a wary eye on the battle ensuing a couple hundred feet away (though he can mostly track it by the sound– it's the only thing happening). Everything far is slightly blurry so Yixing tries his best to scan the walls slowly, movement, somebody, help, but the adrenaline is a bit too much and it’s as if he’s not even there in his body. He doesn’t dare to make noise, making his ankles burn to have his dust-stained hightops silent on the hard ground.

When he finds himself close to Jongin and RF, he diverts away. He doesn’t see or hear anybody other than them despite the distance he just covered. But he can’t lose RF from his sight, nor does he exactly want to lose Baekhyun’s general area from his sight. Is there a way he can get Jongin but not RF to notice him? Yixing wonders as he stills, looking out into the fight. It’s almost as if nothing’s happening, just the constant blocks of shots and teleportation. Where did Jongin get that gun? Maybe Yixing can get one? But that’s not what’s the most pressing. What’s the most pressing is Baekhyun. What’s the most pressing is–

_“Yah!”_

A whisper penetrates his ears. Yixing whips around, eyes scanning the wall behind him, seared off at the middle.

 _“What the hell are you doing?!”_ With the harsh words, raven hair and feline eyes peer out from a couple of wires (the walls _are_ programmed) and melted metal. As soon as it’s registered, relief floods through Yixing, Minseok’s here, he’ll protect him, he’ll help him, he’s safe.

“Hyung!” The excitement elicits a mistake of volume. Relief is replaced with fear as Minseok’s eyes widen and Yixing looks back at RF and Jongin, but he hadn’t been detected.

Or at least, it seems that way until a giant fireball misses him by maybe a foot.

Something hot and full of momentum crashes at his side, a half-melted piece of metal, and Yixing looks out to the open to see RF’s raised claw turning back to Jongin’s green bullets. His eyes then go back to the piece of metal, at least twice the size of his entire body with razor-sharp edges melted so hot that the metal bubbles on the sides. It has dug itself halfway into the ground, dust now clouded around the crash.

 _That thing almost hit you, you should probably move so the next one doesn’t,_ Yixing is trying to process when he’s yanked by the arm. A couple seconds and what has to be a now pulled muscle and Yixing is obscured through a hole in the metal wall. Minseok shoves him back against said wall and something scrapes against his leg, taking not only a chunk of melted skin but also a yelp of pain that’s quickly hushed as if he’s an annoying child. Yixing falls to his knees and tries his absolute hardest to keep the tears in, don’t cry, don’t cry, it doesn’t hurt that much, don’t cry.

In that moment it amplifies ten times harder. The opportunity presents itself again, pushing soft hands down on Yixing’s shoulders and whispering soothing words in his ear. _You don’t have to do this, you don’t have to hurt,_ it tempts, the arms supported on the ground begin to shake because what if he just collapsed here? He could, he could lie down and cry himself to unconsciousness, maybe death. He could finally give himself what his mind and body have been begging for all along, _nothing_ will matter once Yixing has it.

 _No, stop._ Tears slip as he rejects the temptation, face heating up as his sleeves fly up to wipe them. Maybe it’s pathetic, but it’s the embarrassment that stops him. He can’t cry in front of Minseok. He can’t give up in front of Minseok. He can’t prove Minseok right, that he’s the good-for-nothing slacker Minseok’s thought of him this whole time. He can’t prove it to himself, that maybe there really is no reason he should be fighting for life, that throwing that golden sheep was the most idiotic thing he could’ve done. He doesn’t want to realize that if he curls up into a ball and sobs Minseok will only get annoyed with him, shush him, leave him here for RF to discover.

 _Just a little longer._ Yixing tells himself as he stands. _It’s okay. Just a little longer._ Just a little longer until _what_ he doesn’t know, but the phrase gives him something, similar to but not quite hope. After all, this battle can’t last forever. He truly doesn’t know why he so desperately clings onto this, _just a little longer, just a little longer, just a little longer;_ it’s some sort of biological instinct beyond his control. Despite tears welled at his eyes and body throbbing in ache, something within him seems to do whatever it can to stay living. Something that’s just _barely_ stronger than the pain.

Why does it want to stay alive so bad? Why can’t it hear the soothes of _you don’t have to do this, you don’t have to hurt?_ Why does it leave it for Yixing to deal with, pushing him in a place where he might just go fucking insane before deciding to live or die?

Meanwhile, Minseok has been a couple feet away, raised on his toes as he peers over the choppy edge of the broken wall.

Is he hurting this much? What’s going on inside Minseok’s head? Is he barely holding back tears? Does he want to give up just as much as Yixing does? Why isn’t Minseok as bad as he is right now?

“Sorry, Hyung…” Yixing dries his eyes completely, _just a little longer._ “I didn’t–“

 _“Shh!”_ Hushes another voice. Yixing looks up to realize Kyungsoo is right next to Minseok. _Kyungsoo_. Yixing finds his face heating up again because did _Kyungsoo_ just see all that? Did _Kyungsoo_ just see his tears slip?

His face is so dark Yixing can’t tell if he’s bruised or full of grime, and his elbow is burned in a similar fashion to Yixing’s calf. Minseok still has his scratches, now accompanied by sweat and soot, but he looks completely fine besides that. They’re both right back to focusing on Jongin, and Yixing wonders if they really care he’s here, alive. Minseok could have easily done that because he didn’t want him to give them away, this corroborated by the way he shoved him, hushed him, he’s just an imposition, the imposition you have to keep alive because you’re an ethical person and no more, Yixing’s arm hurts, he yanked him so aggressively, his calf…

But now’s not the time to pity himself. In fact, now’s exactly the time to pity–

 _“Baekhyun!”_ Yixing utters despite Kyungsoo’s sharp glare. However, his eyes soften upon the word and Minseok’s attention is caught as well. _“I have Baekhyun. He’s– not so good. But alive. Most likely. I needed–“_

 _“Where is he?”_ Minseok interrupts.

_“Well, he’s–“_

_“Did you_ leave _him somewhere?”_ Kyungsoo’s glare returns. Suddenly, Yixing isn’t so sure he had made the right choice. A bout of frustration washes through him and too soon the tears return to his eyes. Why is everything he does _wrong?_

 _Just a little longer_ becomes less and less and what if he just went away and hid? _You don’t have to do this, you don’t have to hurt. They wouldn’t see you cry if you hid._

 _“I…”_ Just a little longer. _“I needed help._ You _out of all people should know I’m fucking useless, don’t you act surprised.”_ He’s not sure if the anger is directed at Kyungsoo or himself. _“Just come with me. Quick.”_

It’s strange yet understandable that no more words are spoken, maybe a harsh remark from Kyungsoo suppressed, and Yixing is immediately followed. He creeps with pace back over to the large hole in the wall, ducking under hanging wires and squinting to see if RF is still occupied with Jongin. When the coast is clear – in his judgement, at least –, he starts off at a silent sprint back in the direction he came. Yixing knows it’s ridiculous but some of the adrenaline isn’t because he’s trying to be stealthy, some of it’s from Minseok and Kyungsoo right behind him and he can’t be slow and therefore useless in one more way and Baekhyun’s dying, and what if he’s already…?

Yixing sprints faster.

It’s a quick minute and he’s diving over the large piece of debris to the crevice of metal. The first big relief is when Baekhyun is in fact still there, untouched. The second is when Yixing returns his head and hand to his chest and can tell even through his own erratic heart and lungs that Baekhyun is still alive. Though it certainly doesn’t say for how long; the pool of blood has doubled in size within the last five minutes, and is he a bit colder?

“He’s alive.” Yixing says, a wave of exhaustion slumping him back next to Baekhyun. He accidentally lays his calf out flat and hisses in pain, jerking it back up. Now some sediment has stuck itself in the molten skin. He feels more bile rise in his throat from the sprint. But despite it all, everything’s a bit better now: Baekhyun’s here, alive, and so are Kyungsoo and Minseok. Suddenly, Yixing flips back to hopeful and curses himself for wanting to give in. How could he have thought something so dumb when he hadn’t considered anything else? Why had he assumed the worst?

“You left him _unsure_ of whether he’d live…” Kyungsoo’s checking Baekhyun in the same way as if Yixing hadn’t.

“I _told you,”_ Yixing’s reiteration isn’t without a waver of tone, “there was nothing else I could do– would you _rather_ I stay with him and do nothing until he dies?”

Kyungsoo’s head snaps to him and there’s a hint of a smile on his lips. A _smile._

“I’d _rather_ have you do what you’re fucking supposed to do and heal him!” A humorless laugh, “My god, imagine how different things would be if you just _tried.”_

 _“Tried?”_ Does Kyungsoo really have no idea how much _trying_ it took just to be here right now? Just to stand up? Just to keep going? Just to not cry? Anger flares in his chest and it’s impulse that grabs Kyungsoo’s collar and shoves him up against the metal, “What do you fucking _think_ _–“_

 _“Yah,_ stop fighting.” Interrupts Minseok, and that’s when Yixing realizes he isn’t next to them. He isn’t even near them. Instead, he’s standing about ten feet away, looking more at the ground than them, than anywhere close to the dying boy.

 _“Seriously?”_ Fear petrifies Yixing as Kyungsoo’s gaze snaps back to him from Minseok, what’s he going to do to him? He didn’t mean to. He didn’t mean to grab him. He’s about to literally beg to not be hurt when Kyungsoo simply pushes him off and turns to Minseok.

“How about _you_ stop being a god damn child and get over here. A little blood isn’t going to kill you, Minseok. Suck it up for who’s _actually_ in danger.” And Yixing is distracted with Minseok’s jaw dropping so he flinches when two rough hands grab at his wrists. As if he had said something idiotic, Kyungsoo scoffs as he tugs his right arm to him, then positioning his wrist over his leg. Yixing is just about to ask what he’s doing when Kyungsoo suddenly tears his bracelet in half.

Just like that. Liberation of a dark red mark.

He follows with ripping off the handcuff, then repeating the action with the chunk on his left. Yixing watches and starts to feel a bit awkward. Even if life and death calls for the complete disregard of any interpersonal conflict, as shown from the way Kyungsoo yells at him but then doesn’t hurt him and tears off his restraints without hesitance and the way Minseok silently complies and is now sitting with them, it still feels a bit weird to be one second fighting and the next cooperating.

“Him too.” Kyungsoo moves to Baekhyun as Yixing stares at him in awe. And then the bracelet on the ground, wires protruding from the tear. It was _that_ easy. Yixing could’ve begged Kyungsoo to do this a long time ago. Though it wouldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t simply get another one. It’s just surprising how easy it is to destroy it. Maybe it does make sense, though, when it’s easy for it to destroy him.

Another snap and Baekhyun is free as well. Yixing cringes at the wound, now fully visible. At the center of his wrist everything is gone to the bone, only a few ligaments left as compared to the several that were on the side of the bracelet. Kyungsoo stares at it, expression appalled. His hand then goes to his mouth as he quickly looks away, shaking his head.

 _“Let’s– let’s go. Somewhere not cornered.”_ Says Minseok. His voice is awfully tense and when Yixing looks he’s staring at the ground gripping at his hair.

He’s right. They need to relocate. Yixing can barrage them with questions once they get somewhere safe. Both Minseok and Kyungsoo stand, but Kyungsoo bends down and easily scoops up Baekhyun in his arms. It makes all the effort Yixing had put into hauling him out look even more pathetic.

This time it’s Yixing that follows, mimicking their stealthy gait. He keeps looking at his free wrist and then looks at Minseok and Kyungsoo’s. They don’t have white strips on them either. The latter’s burn is visible, a pink tint, almost back to his skin color.

They follow back down the route towards RF but, before getting to the point they had hidden, divert to the right, more open area not along one of the huge hallways. They go into what used to be a square room, four metal corners the only remains. They head to the corner with the most debris in it, which means they have to weave around hunks of ruin to get to the actual corner. It’s safe yet dangerous, because it’s easy to hide in yet hard to escape.

In the corner Kyungsoo lays down Baekhyun, sitting him up against the wall and hauling away a couple of metal shards. There is adequate room and light, letting Yixing see the three of them and not have to be touching, though his knees are bent slightly to avoid hooked shards above.

“Who’s alive?” Yixing immediately asks. “I just woke up with him and immediately went to get you guys. Where did Jongin get the weapon?”

Kyungsoo answers, “Everyone.” And even if they don’t like him Yixing has never felt so relieved. It’s suddenly easier to breathe. “The Pod crashed and then exploded, I believe, so everyone went everywhere and several places of Exoplanet were hit. Jongin happened to be near artillery.”

“We’re now trying to… destroy RF...” Minseok adds, but not without a touch of incredulity, Yixing notices. “We were just trying to gather everyone, but now we know you’re alive. Him too. We’re going to tell everyone to stop searching.” He steps back. “And heal him fast, please. It seems RF’s capable of defending against several of us at once.”

“Wait, you’re– you’re leaving?” Yixing cringes at how childish he sounds, but he is terrified to be alone again. Even with the reassurance everyone is alive, he can’t do anything to protect himself. And heal Baekhyun? He has _never_ successfully healed _anything._ Are they going to depend on him to do this? And if he doesn’t… if Baekhyun dies and _he_ remains alive… 

“Yes, _we’re leaving.”_ Kyungsoo replies, voice devoid of any comfort, “You’ll be fine here. If RF comes near, stay hidden, and if she remains, relocate somewhere safe.”

"But..." Yixing glances at the dying boy and then his hands. "A source. I don't have a source."

Kyungsoo looks at him like he's the biggest idiot in the universe.

"You, Yixing. _You're_ the fucking source."

"O-oh..." Fire rages in Yixing's cheeks and he's too overwhelmed to think about what that really means. "But– but also, you– you know I can't protect myself, much less him..." Baekhyun will wake up without Yixing having to heal him, right? Or there’s something in the medical unit here that can heal him in time, right? “And you know I can’t… my power… you’re going to get stuff from the medical unit, right?”

Kyungsoo and Minseok exchange a look. Yixing hates to be this imposition, it’s humiliating, he feels himself on the verge of tears again, but what would be worse is to keep lying.

“We’ll tell everyone where you are.” Kyungsoo decides. “If RF comes near, someone will be there to protect you. And there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to heal him. You have the power, no?”

“Yes… but you know I’ve never–“

“Then _you will be fine.”_ Kyungsoo’s gaze grows wide and stern and Yixing shies away from eye contact. There are a couple moments of the glare getting heavier and heavier until it climaxes in the form of a sigh. Yixing blinks away embarrassed tears. _Just a little longer._

“Just keep him alive until I can get medical supplies. RF still has full control of the building so it’s not safe to go inside right now.”

It’s supposed to be a comfort but Yixing feels a gargantuan weight press down on his chest. He doesn’t let this show, however, he’s already pathetic enough, and just nods. “Okay.” However, as they turn, the feelings of unrest surface and, “Wait.”

They turn back rather fast. Aggravation builds in the form of sweat on Kyungsoo’s knit brow.

“Just– I’m sorry,” He apologizes. “For being so lazy. Inadequate. Useless. Always slacking in training and not getting my power. I know I’m a burden. I just didn’t think it would… really matter…” But now it does, here, where he needs to fight for his life and the lives of others yet he can’t do _anything_.

Another look exchanged.

For a minute, Yixing is afraid that he’ll receive another outburst, but Kyungsoo just sighs again. “There’s nothing you can do about it now. Just try your hardest.”

“I will.”

And they leave. And Yixing has to now do what he’s never done and heal someone. Even if what Kyungsoo said still hurt _(even when_ he was expecting him to agree, too).

His head and hand immediately go back to Baekhyun’s chest, checking for life. He’s still here. Now, what’s next?

A source. Himself. He... he has to take from himself?

How far have they gone? Yixing peers up over a scrap of metal, seeing Minseok and Kyungsoo already at the other corner. Minseok’s holding a giant plug, with red and green and blue and yellow wires extending as far as he can see. They’re talking, Kyungsoo’s shaking his head emphatically, and then Minseok’s sticking the two pieces together.

Suddenly, there’s a giant flash. When the light goes away, Minseok is flying, and Kyungsoo is watching with an disappointed surprise. Yixing’s jaw drops as he soars through the air like a comet, landing somewhere he can’t see.

But he can hear, in the form of Jongdae:

“HOLY FUCKING BITCH SHIT– _BABE?!”_

Kyungsoo shakes his head, looking down when suddenly, something goes flying past his head. A few more do and he dives to the ground. They’re the same green bullets as earlier. Yixing tries to see who shot them, but all that’s visible is another gun with another hand hidden behind debris. Kyungsoo seems to know who it is, however.

“Sehun!” He shouts, peeking up from the wall. “Stop! It’s me!”

Then, Yixing hears a distant shout. _“Come here!”_

Kyungsoo’s running out of sight and too quick the deafening silence returns as if Yixing and the dying boy are the only things in the universe.

_Just a little longer._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohhh man you have NOO idea how excited I was to post this oneeeeeeeeee OH MANNNN
> 
> A rather dark twist to the power mv if I do say so myself.... but, if you were wondering why Baekhyun is MIA like the whole mv, this is the exact reason why like this is literally cannon this is just deleted scenes transcribed I am not lying when have I ever lied to you
> 
> Also sorry about the title LOL I just thought it would be fitting to have the most depressing chapter with the stupidest fucking name 
> 
> Ok but shenanigans aside–––thoughts? Our yixing doesn't exactly seem fit for battle, considering how he's on the verge of tears and surrender the whole time...had he really meant his 'fuck practicality' when he threw away Junmyeon's gift to save himself? Or is he going to go back on this next chapter and go say sorry to RF? Do you find yourself having similar thoughts as Yixing when you're doing something difficult, struggling just as much with the difficult thing as with the reminder that you can always quit so why aren't you quitting? (I sure do, especially when it's something athletically demanding haha)  
> And also, yixing /himself/ as a source...? :o ruh roh
> 
> Until next week >:DD


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